Singh: BankUnited’s commercial clients are ‘cautiously optimistic’
Measures to contain the spread of coronavirus are still shifting by the day — and so are responses by investors, developers, builders, banks and buyers. To track the impact in real-time, RE|source Miami is asking area business leaders and real estate professionals in various sectors for on-the-ground reports.
Today we hear from Rajinder P. Singh, chairman, president & CEO of Miami Lakes-based BankUnited. BankUnited today manages more than $33 billion in total assets, with more than $25 billion in deposits, according to its first-quarter earnings.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2020, the Company reported a net loss of $31 million, compared to net income of $66 million in the first quarter of 2019 due to COVID-19 impacts. It retains a 5-star rating from Bauer Financial.
Q: The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated digital transformation. But do you find your account holders are ready to embrace a fully digital universe, or do they still want a personal relationship with a bank?
Our customers want both. They appreciate the voice and advice given from our bankers during this stressful period and we pride ourselves in maintaining our customer-centric standards across all of our distribution channels. We are also finding more digital engagement with our consumer and commercial clients during this time as they feel increasingly more comfortable transacting from home.
Q: What financial trends are you seeing among your commercial and individual clients during the COVID-19 crisis?
There has been a general flight to liquidity which is an understandable reaction for businesses to make during this time. For our clients who required a PPP loan to help protect jobs, we were able to process and secure funding for them.
Q: Rollout of the Paycheck Protection Program has confounded many struggling business owners. To what degree has BankUnited participated in the program? And is the second round going more smoothly than the first?
We are proud to have been able to participate in the PPP and serve our clients. At the beginning of the program, we made the commitment as a company to do our best to secure funding for all of our clients who needed and were eligible for a PPP loan. We knew it would be an ambitious task, but I am thrilled to say that with the help of all of our employees in a heroic month-long effort, we have executed on that goal.
Q: When you think about your commercial clients as a whole, what seems to be the sentiment? Are they worried? Cautious? Optimistic? And has that changed at all since governments began planning for an economic reopening?
Our clients have generally been cautiously optimistic and hope to return to “normal” as soon as responsibly possible. All businesses have been impacted by varying degrees and have had to make strategic decisions around business continuity, payroll and modified operations to stay financially viable in the near-term. Some have been fortunate enough to experience minimal disruption to operations while implementing a remote work strategy. As communities begin to re-open, our clients are realistic that the recovery will take longer than the abrupt shutdown but hopeful to return to work and start re-building the economy.
Q: Based on your interactions with clients, what parts of the economy do you anticipate will open more quickly, and what do you anticipate will lag?
The speed to recovery will depend on what I like to call healthcare confidence – defined as how comfortable the consumer feels about going back to conducting activities outside of the home, without the worry of getting or spreading the virus. As that confidence level increases, businesses will be able to recover at a more meaningful pace. This will be particularly true for businesses that depend primarily on foot traffic to drive sales. Rolling out a phased approach with proper social distancing etiquette and enhanced safety protocols along with the availability of widespread and reliable testing will also be required to accelerate the pace of recovery.
