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Byline: Alan Kline Like a lot of new CEOs, Gordon Nixon promised to make diversity a priority when he took the helm of Royal Bank of Canada. Right away, he [...]

Sometimes being a retail banker means having to say you're sorry. A lot. 'Hi, my name is Linda Verba, and I'm sorry,' the top customer service executive at TD Bank [...]

The nation's 10 largest credit card issuers have agreed to give certain struggling cardholders deeper rate cuts and relief from late and over-limit fees, the National Foundation for Credit Counseling [...]

The Fallacy of Customer Retention For the past year or so, bankers have been assailed with a proposition that can best be described as a nostrum or panacea. The proposition [...]

Faced with upheaval and consolidation among thrift and banking companies,notablyWashington Mutual Inc. and Wachovia Corp., insurance carriers are working to assure bank customers that their annuity investments are safe. The [...]

Upselling requires the ability to target potentially high-value customers - and the highest-probability responders. It also requires compelling, relevant, and timely communications to encourage clients to consolidate their balances at [...]

The landscape of financial providers catering to the underbanked has grown and changed dramatically in recent years. Retailers, technology firms, and other nonbanks have elbowed past banks and credit unions [...]

Wealth management firms are taking steps to better customize their services for clients with more than $1 million, industry observers say. A survey by NorthStar Systems International Inc. of San [...]

USAA said Monday that it has expanded its membership criteria, potentially doubling its customer base, and made its life insurance and investment products available to members' extended families. The San [...]

For years bankers have had only modest success getting customers to drop paper statements, so some are introducing accounts that are managed almost exclusively online and do not offer them [...]

Kansas credit unions that count the state or large swaths of it as a field of membership will have to start redrawing their boundaries soon. About 10 state-chartered credit unions [...]

Wachovia Corp. says its retail retirement group is drawing assets by having advisers work face to face with customers at every income level to create a retirement plan. The Charlotte [...]

WASHINGTON -- By the end of this month, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta plans to refine its system for sizing up the risk posed by each of its [...]

If theres a case to be made that banks are pulling back on extended branch hours after pushing them relentlessly for two decades, BankAtlantic could be Exhibit A. The self-proclaimed [...]

As nonaccruals climb and foreclosures mount, the role of the workout department becomes pivotal. Below are some thoughts on getting your workout group ready for the increased volume ahead. Given [...]

The Office of Thrift Supervision has launched a consumer response hot line. The OTS said Tuesday that it will use the hot line to investigate complaints about the institutions it [...]

With the din of advertising that bombards us each day, I am always impressed when a 'little guy' can cut through the noise to get me to consider a particular [...]

Synovus Financial Corp. says it has improved customer service and more tightly integrated its back-office business processes with reusable technology building blocks based on service-oriented architecture. John Woolbright, the chief [...]

The banking industry's image has suffered as fees have jumped and foreclosures have spiked, so bankers in Utah are trying to change the public's perception. 'Some people perceive us as [...]

Though many consider prepaid debit cards one of the best products for creating relationships with underbanked consumers, the companies that specialize in the product have long had trouble getting consumers [...]

Bank call centers often squander valuable cross-sell opportunities by alienating customers with long wait times, tedious automated voice-response systems, and uninformed representatives, industry insiders said. Jeannie Fichtel, the senior vice [...]

Financial companies are showing more interest in providing remote capture services to certain types of consumers. Fiserv Inc.'s CheckFree Corp. is expected to introduce a remote deposit capture service today [...]

A recent conversation with the owner of an independent toy store reminded me of why we ask our branch managers to 'act like owners' when running their businesses. While running [...]

Chase Paymentech LLC, a rarity among merchant acquirers in its active pursuit of online payment alternatives to credit cards, plans to add more of these emerging services to its lineup. [...]

When the wealth management arm of Countybank Trust Services of Greenwood, S.C., gets new business, it's most likely to come through a referral by a satisfied client. Fred Murphy, senior [...]

Metavante Technologies Inc. said its planned purchase of the San Diego software vendor BenSoft Inc. would make its health account products easier for customers to manage. BenSoft makes a program [...]

Which customers make the biggest contribution to your bottom line, and which generate a negative return? Do your promotions target volume without profitability? How do you decide what to charge [...]

Affinion Group Inc. of Norwalk, Conn., said it has acquired about 500,000 customers for its cardholder protection service, and the associated revenue streams, from a U.S. financial institution for $50 [...]

Banks' share of deposits and loans to businesses and consumers is declining. Consequently, most banks are seriously challenged when it comes to organic revenue growth. Many customers view banks as [...]

Legend has it that consumers and businesses bank with community banks because they like the feeling that their banker knows them. How can it be, then, that these banks actually [...]

Legend has it that consumers and businesses bank with community banks because they like the feeling that their banker knows them. How can it be, then, that these banks actually [...]

When it comes to grocers, many banking companies are happy to adopt one of two perspectives: Either the institutions view the retail chains as potential hosts for their in-store branches, [...]

In the year since Prosper Marketplace Inc. unveiled its peer-to-peer online lending service, the company has attracted 175,000 users and issued $36 million of loans. That portfolio pales against the [...]

All 'best practices' are not created equal. Competitive and regulatory pressures have led many banks to upgrade support functions such as product management, marketing, fraud compliance, regulatory compliance, near-real-time performance [...]

Bank of New York Co. Inc. and Mellon Financial Corp. want to do in their planned merger what they tried to make sure would not happen when State Street Corp. [...]

When Bank of America Corp. introduced a debit card that rounds up the transaction amount to the nearest dollar and deposits the difference into customers' savings accounts, the Charlotte company [...]

The costs of dealing with a data breach are rising, and earlier ones ended up costing more than originally believed, a pair of studies say. Today, Ponemon Institute LLC of [...]

Whitney Houston described most folks' purchase-making processes accurately in her 1987 thesis 'So Emotional.' To quote Ms. Houston, 'I don't know why I like it. I just do.' She was [...]

As competition for customers intensified, bank marketing budgets ballooned 18% in two years, to an estimated aggregate of $10.6 billion last year, according to the American Bankers Association. After surveying [...]

Most bankers agree that brand strength is a key ingredient in selling products, cross-selling, and attracting customers. Strengthening brand value can increase market share, provide protection against competitors, and raise [...]

Selecting the right separate-account manager for a client may be the most important decision an adviser must make, as executives at a superregional banking company and a community bank can [...]

Customer retention has become an urgent priority as the retail deposit, consumer lending, and residential mortgage businesses all have stalled. New customers are getting harder to find and banks must [...]

Leader Bank NA in Arlington, Mass., is using instant messaging software to make it easier for customers to get in touch with branch personnel. Though other banks are using similar [...]

New customers can be notoriously picky. An unexpected checking-account fee or a debit card that does not arrive in a timely manner could be all it takes for a customer [...]

Poor problem resolution drives off customers; good problem resolution helps you keep them in the fold. In fact, customers whose problems have been solved to their satisfaction are likelier to [...]

In your entire life, have you ever had a banker personally ask you, an individual, to bank with his or her bank? I often pose that benign-sounding question to groups [...]

NewAlliance Bancshares Inc. chairman and chief executive Peyton R. Patterson spent an entire morning last month serving complimentary cups of coffee to commuters in Fairfield County, Conn., as they boarded [...]

After working with scores of banks and conducting considerable research through the years, I've deduced something: The customers of our institutions can be grouped under the taxonomic classification of 'human.' [...]

Bank of New York Co.'s private bank started an advice division Thursday to improve its image as a high-net-worth manager. Stephen Doty, who heads the investment adviser services division, said [...]

It can be hard for banks to persuade online customers to use new features and services. Technology can be easier to introduce in other settings. When a bank releases new [...]