Flickers of growth focus in a landscape of darkness for Bank of America, with news release that they are hiring 180 Merrill Edge Financial Solutions Advisors (FSAs) throughout New Jersey in 2010, presaging doubling of FSA’s by next year to more than 1000 nationwide. Like many banks, focus is on mass affluent, and BofA claims to serve more than 8 million of these. Big investments in data mining to dig the gold in that big mountain range. New product and service investments too, with Platinum Privileges, which rewards customers with $50k+ in deposits with xxx, new mobile app, and even specialty stores for aristocratic Main Street presence integrating investment, small biz and mortgage specialist.
Category Archives: Retail Banking
Banks brand their cost-cutting programs
U.S. bank profitability in recent quarters has been driven by significant reductions in provisions for loan losses. With these provisions now returning to normalized rates, and with revenue growth anemic, many U.S. banks are turning their attention to reducing noninterest expenses. A number of banks now have branded cost-containment programs in place, including Project New BAC (Bank of America), Project Compass (Wells Fargo) and Keyvolution (KeyBank).
While some may see this as a cynical attempt by banks to put a gloss on an effort that ultimately result in lost jobs, from the banks’ perspectives, branding these programs serves to emphasize their commitment to cost containment with both external (investors and analysts) and internal (executives and other employees) stakeholders.
- For investors and analysts, this commitment is seen in having a named program in place, with overall saving goals, specified areas where savings can be attained, as well as regular progress reports
- For bank staff, the branding of such programs builds awareness, coordinates various cost-containment initiatives at the bank, as well as providing a forum for staff to submit cost-containment suggestions
Expect more banks to follow the lead of Bank of America, Wells Fargo and KeyBank.
Growth of referral programs at banks
Following the financial crisis, U.S. banks have refocused on optimizing relationships with existing customers. One of the ways that banks have sought to monetize these relationships is to cross-sell additional financial products and services. Another is to leverage the existing customer base to acquire additional customers, through referral programs.
It is notable that there has been recent growth in the incidence of referral programs on bank websites. the following is a list of banks currently featuring referral offers on their websites:
