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Examiners are expecting bankers to take new approaches to stress testing loans, especially commercial real estate ones, which could have a profound impact on loan-loss reserves. Ron Piccinini of First [...]

Dick Kovacevich had a clear philosophy at Norwest and Wells Fargo: Money moves. This means that customers move their money from borrowing instruments to investments, for example. It also means [...]

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 [...]

We have all read about the huge impact anticipated from the changes in the payments world. Fundamentally, there are three major changes driving the revolution. * Check 21, the last [...]

The financial services industry is moving further and further into the 'every dollar counts' zone. Banks are leveraging their balance sheets to eke out every dollar of earnings, and not [...]

The wealth management business is becoming increasingly important as margins shrink. Registered investment advisers are proliferating and bankers are asking whether they need one. These firms vary widely by size, [...]

The number of bank charters continues to decline, but the number of branches is at an all-time high, closing in on 80,000 last year, up from fewer than 45,000 in [...]

The past year was one of stability. Our industry did not experience major changes or upheavals. Instead, the flat-to-inverted yield curve continued to take its toll on most banks, credit [...]

Retail banking continues to evolve, and industry front-runners are redefining the benchmarks. It is interesting and educational to observe how the 'hot' trends are reshaping the business, tactically and strategically. [...]

Business banking, the undefined business line that falls between commercial banking on the one hand and consumer lending on the other, is an unsolved mystery for most banks. We intuitively [...]

In days past America's largest banks all had outstanding commercial lender training programs. They taught the best and brightest college graduates credit underwriting skills, relationship management techniques, and even elements [...]

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 [...]

Our industry spends millions each year installing and refining sales processes in various lines of business. The returns have generally been meager. Here are some steps to make sure your [...]

As I do every year, I dusted off my crystal ball to take a look at the upcoming year and what it might bring to our industry. Here are my [...]

Banks of all sizes, including small ones, are investing much mental energy and money in their brand. I find that ironic, since when banks are sold the buyer almost always [...]

Bankers have finally realized that keeping a customer is generally more profitable than acquiring a customer. There are several reasons: * Seasoned customers keep much higher balances. * They tend [...]

'Enterprise risk management' is one of those old-new terms that gets bandied about every 15 years or so by bank executive management, every year by your business continuity department, and, [...]

Incentive compensation can help achieve corporate goals or undermine them. Good plans are clear, simple, and predictable; employees know in advance just how much they will earn for doing what [...]

The general view among investors and analysts is that the industry is ripe for trouble this year -- from rate hikes, insufficient loan growth, and lurking loan-quality problems. I disagree. [...]

In today's low rate environment, branches are being closed and others opened on the basis of mathematically accurate formulas that yield the wrong decision for the long run. I am [...]

Branch design has been changing. Gone, by and large, are 10,000-square-foot branches through whose lobbies you could shoot a cannonball without hurting anyone. Bankers are looking for designs that improve [...]

There is endless debate about whether a bank is better off being privately or publicly owned. Fans of privately owned banks say not having to optimize for each quarterly conference [...]

As the last quarter of 2004 comes into view, some trends in banks' performance and range of opportunities are apparent. Over all, the earnings of supercommunity banks improved this year, [...]

In the aftermath of Sarbanes-Oxley, the position of 'enterprise risk manager' was created. The individual who gets this title has the seemingly thankless job of overseeing the entire institution's risk [...]

The role of the marketing department is, like any other department, to build shareholder value. But many have trouble finding the path from marketing activities to net income. Many banks, [...]

Speedy decision-making is a hallmark of entrepreneurial companies. Relying on gut feelings, even if they contradict data produced by managers and others, provides an increasingly strong competitive advantage as change [...]

Banks used to aim to be all things to all people. In the past decade, some highly successful banks have demonstrated disciplined customer focus. For TCF Financial Corp. in Wayzata, [...]

Everyone from the largest bank to the smallest touts relationship management these days, and many set up training, incentives, and other programs to reinforce the concept. Is the hoopla worth [...]

Most banks go through a feast-or-famine cycle every few years. They focus on revenue growth, build the infrastructure and staff to get there, and then realize they've become cost-inefficient. The [...]

In a conversation with Disney executives I realized that Disney is very clear about its product. Its rides aren't the best, scariest, or most modern. But the environment is unmatched. [...]

Large mergers create major opportunities for community banks to take advantage of customer dislocation. As the two most recent megadeals fuel another wave of mergers, more opportunities are likely to [...]

Increasingly sophisticated management techniques have raised organizational walls that need to be broken down for effective cross-selling. The quest for better data on customer and line-of-business profitability has inadvertently helped [...]

The airline industry has undergone huge change in recent years. Conventional airlines face competitors they could never have imagined, ranging from the Hooters restaurant chain to Virgin Records. Banks have [...]

Banks have been trying for years to figure out what customers want. Unfortunately, they often reach conclusions without asking the customers themselves. The best example of such an error was [...]

Common wisdom tells us that the more efficient a bank is -- keeping overhead and other costs to a minimum -- the better its chances of success. But take a [...]

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has awakened board members to their fiduciary responsibility in a very positive manner. Bank directors, like those at other institutions, realize that expectations have grown, both in [...]

Community banks have been hit hard by margin compression in the past 18 months. Many true commercial lenders have mostly variable loans that reprice downward each time the Fed lowers [...]

Financial services companies everywhere are talking the sales culture talk -- but execution is still faltering. Bankers are searching for a silver bullet, but fostering a sales culture goes way [...]

Branch-building is in, and the consensus is that it's a bad idea. To the extent that our business has been known for its colossal lemming-like mistakes, the naysayers are right. [...]

The days when bankers were hired for their math skills and friendly personalities have supposedly been over for years. The industry has modernized, we're told. We are now looking for [...]

The effectiveness of growth by acquisition has been called into question. Few of the megamergers of the late 1990s fulfilled their promise, so analysts have become more attentive to the [...]

Community banks seem to be coming through the economic downturn almost unscathed. What a different outcome from the early 1990s -- and from what many investors expected last year It [...]

A bank's key production tool is its people, but many banks pay only lip service to that idea. In particular they consider the human resources department a necessary evil and [...]

As the banking industry grows more complex, managing people is becoming more challenging. Traditional performance measurement criteria linked rewards strictly to financial results, most often return on equity. However, simplistic [...]

A decade ago credit card receivables were all the rage. Card companies grew like mushrooms, building receivables at an unprecedented speed, and banks wanted a piece of the action. Card [...]

Incentive compensation plans are now par for the course in all walks of banking life. From the internal audit departments to various sales forces, incentive compensation is a primary motivational [...]

Some aspects of bank management can be quite frustrating, and technology is one of them. Our industry has grown heavily dependent on technology -- when it doesn't work, we cannot [...]

Operational-risk management is no longer optional for community banks. Directors need to do more than tell each other stories about tellers gone bad or doctors running more cash than usual [...]

There was much discussion last year about credit quality and the deterioration in many large portfolios as a result of the recession. After an unprecedented period of economic prosperity, lenders [...]