Author Archives: mronan

Banks Are Reducing Branch Networks…But Remain Committed to Human Channels

In reporting their quarterly and annual financials, leading U.S. banks reported continued declines in their branch networks.

These declines are driven by banks’ need to cut costs, as well as reflecting the significant shift to digital channels by consumers and businesses for their everyday banking needs.  However, There is plenty of evidence that banks remain fully committed to their human channels, especially the branch channel.

  • JPMorgan Chase announced last week that it plans to open up to 400 branches in the next five years in new markets.
  • At its 2017 Investor Day, Citigroup discussed its retail banking campaign in Manhattan, which featured three new Citigold Centers as well as the addition of 70+ relationship managers and financial advisors.  This campaign led to a 16% rise in checking deposits, 18% growth in assets under management, and 35% increase in personal and home equity loans.
  • Wells Fargo has a branch presence in more than 460 markets, which it considers to be a competitive advantage over national banking competitors such as Chase and Bank of America, both of whom are in less than 250 markets.  Wells Fargo also highlights that it is in the 15 fastest-growing U.S. markets.
  • Fifth Third presented its “bricks and clicks” approach at its Investor Day, which articulated the roles of both digital and branch channels as well as the importance of integrating these channels.

Why do banks remain committed to human channels?

  • While digital channels are effective for day-to-day banking needs, bank clients tend to prefer human channels for their more personal and complex banking needs.
  • With the switch to digital channels for everyday banking, banks no longer need highly-dense networks in order to establish or maintain a physical presence in new markets.
  • Reflecting their changing role, branches are increasingly staffed with specialists (e.g., mortgage bankers, small business bankers, investment bankers) who increase branch effectiveness as a sales channel.
  • Maintaining a branch presence in a market is key to raising and maintaining brand awareness and affinity.

Banks need to invest in both human and digital channels, in order to reflect customer needs, preferences and behaviors.  A truly integrated channel strategy and structure, which is built around the customer journey, and which reflects the unique attributes of both human and digital channels, is vital for banks to optimize returns on their channel investment.

Banks Use Surveys to Cover Small Business Topics of Interest

In May 2017, EMI published a blog that discusses how banks use surveys to build small business engagement.  In that blog we reported that many leading banks publish recurring surveys that track general business optimism as well as key challenges and opportunities.  In addition, banks also carry surveys that cover specific topics on a one-off basis.  The following table looks at the topics covered over the past six months:

The banks cover these topics of interest to achieve a number of objectives, including:

  • Raising general awareness of the bank and affinity among small businesses
  • Positioning the bank as a small business banking thought leader
  • Communicating their understanding of the changing issues impacting small businesses
  • Highlighting their areas of strength
  • Differentiating the bank from its competitors

In fact, the desire for differentiation is leading banks to conduct surveys on specific small business sub-segments or on specific product areas.  Recent standalone surveys of this type include:

  • U.S. Bank surveys of Asian-American small business owners (October 2017) and Hispanic small business owners (October 2017)
  • Surveys by both Bank of America (September 2017) and American Express (November 2017) on women-owned businesses
  • Bank of America Small Business Payments Spotlight (October 2017)
  • American Express Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey (November 2017)

The proliferation of small business surveys that cover specific topics of interest indicate that they are effective tools in helping banks build awareness and engagement with their small business clients and prospects.

Low FICO Score Categories Drive Loan Growth for Leading Credit Card Issuers

In a March 2017 blog post, EMI highlighted growth in credit card outstandings across the credit spectrum for leading credit card issuers.  Our recent analysis of 3Q17 10Q SEC filings for these companies shows that this trend is continuing.

The top three issuers—Bank of America, Chase, and Citigroup—reported growth across all FICO Score segments, with strongest growth coming in the lowest segment.  In the aftermath of the Financial Crisis, issuers pulled back on lending to low-prime and sub-prime consumers.  With the return to steady economic growth in recent years—and with issuers now believing that they have more robust underwriting and pricing systems—issuers are now refocusing on consumers in lower FICO Score categories.

Assets at both Capital One and Discover skew heavily towards credit card loans.  Discover generated 9% y/y rise in credit card outstandings, led by 16% rise in loans to consumers with a <600 FICO Score.  Capital One bucked the overall trend, with lower growth for its <660 FICO Score segment.  However, it should be taken into account that this segment accounts for 35% of its total credit card outstandings (vs. 15% at Chase, 16% at Citi, and 19% at Discover), so it has less scope for strong growth.

The leading regional bank card issuers—who focus on cross-selling credit cards to existing bank clients—reported a similar pattern.  SunTrust has continued its very strong growth trajectory, with overall growth of 16% led by the <620 category.  Regions followed a similar pattern, with 7% overall growth in outstandings driven by a 35% rise in the subprime (<620) segment. PNC had strong growth across the credit spectrum.  Fifth Third had strong growth in the <660 segment, but from a very low base.  The y/y decline in outstandings in its 720+ category resulted in Fifth Third overall credit card outstandings remaining unchanged.  Wells Fargo’s overall growth rate (+4% y/y) has slowed considerably in recent quarters.  It generated steady growth across most categories, with the exception of the 600-680 FICO range.