As consumer digital migration drains ever more branch traffic, banks have been working through a delicate transition with branch staffing.
Amid all the pressing questions, sales, service, headcount and skills, executives have drawn comfort from the Read More
Microbusinesses, defined as firms with annual revenues of less than $1 million, constitute 90% of all businesses and thus represent a significant opportunity for banks. But given the small size of loans involved in this Read More
Price promotions long have been an important tool for deposit-gathering, both to meet long-term funding goals and to quickly acquire balances in special situations. While the deposit-rich environment of recent years has muted much of the Read More
One of the central problems banks face is that, despite the wealth of information available to them, there is still much they do not know about their customers. For example, a customer might have a Read More
With the market anticipating higher interest rates, banks may find it increasingly difficult to get customers to accept longer-term deposit accounts. One way to overcome this reluctance is by offering them rate change features in Read More
“Why should we bother with small businesses? Your own numbers say most banks lose money from small business loans.” – Retail bank head, Northeast
“We are much more interested in the middle market than small Read More
In today’s digital economy, banking, like other industries, faces “disruptive” expectations from customers. Both individuals and businesses expect access to and delivery of services virtually on demand. Winning companies are responding by creating innovative approaches Read More
Influencing a customer’s decision to choose a specific credit card for any given transaction from her wallet can be challenging for card issuers. In the typical lifecycle of managing a bankcard customer, driving activation and usage Read More
If you have only scanned the headlines from the business world, the news about bank branches seems grim, as every week brings more branch closings by banks and credit unions.
In many of those instances, managers Read More
Meet Brittany. She’s 25 years old and works at her first job. Her paycheck is deposited directly into her checking account. She has a checkbook somewhere in her apartment, as she finds she does not Read More
It goes without saying that retail banking has many moving parts and Bank-at-Work programs are no exception. From target strategy to sales protocols and from results tracking to offer fulfillment, successful program implementation requires that Read More
One important lesson that all bankers learned during the financial crisis was that trust is essential to their success and that once an institution loses that trust in the eyes of its customers, regulators or Read More
While bankers have generally become more sophisticated in their understanding and execution of profitability analysis, all too often, they are limiting their potential for success by failing to utilize tools such as funds transfer pricing Read More
In today’s sluggish economy, banks are looking under every rock for cost savings in order to show better earnings growth. One source of expense control, however, has been hiding in plain sight: the cost of Read More
We all love lists, particularly those New Year’s resolutions for improving our businesses and ourselves. But the fact is, for most financial institutions, that any list should begin with one item. Once that item has Read More
Like many other large, complex and regulated industries, the very foundation of banking is being challenged, to the point that we often hear the saying,“Banking is necessary; banks are not.” Yet, here we are today Read More
Even as overall customer satisfaction with banks continues to rise, banking today is faced with a number of serious challenges; including the rise of non-bank competitors and the commoditization of core services in a Read More
There’s been a lot of debate about millennials and their likes and dislikes. I myself cite regular surveys that millennials would rather go to the dentist than visit their bank and that surveys of millennials Read More
It’s common knowledge that it’s easier and cheaper to sell to existing customers than to attract new ones. However, according to studies that I conducted at two major banking institutions, many cross-sell efforts result in Read More
Bankers need help selling to demanding, savvy customers in all channels. But it’s a challenge to provide personalized, needs-based product and service offerings at the point-of-sale without possessing in-depth knowledge of every banking product.
Today Read More