Senior Bank Management: The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken
In the past 18 months, we have seen a noticeable shift within the senior management ranks of most of our client banks. A search for consensus is giving way to…
Wealth Management and Commercial Banking: Linkages Are Critical
Last week, we spoke at Thomson Media’s Wealth Management Forum. Our focus centered on the need for banks to forge closer linkages between their commercial and wealth management efforts. This…
Seven Habits of Highly Effective Small Business Groups
This week’s Consumer Banking Association’s Small Business Banking Conference featured a keynote address by Peter Raskind, National City Bank’s Executive Vice President and head of Consumer and Small Business Financial…
Three Roadblocks to Commercial Banking Success
FIC’s recent commercial banking projects have focused on emphasizing increased selling over other tasks. The rationale for this is that senior management wants to see increased growth from a middle…
Banks Need to Fix Their Sales Misalignments
Effectively managing multiple sales and service channels has gained greater priority at many of the best banks. Banks want to encourage customers to use lower-cost channels for low-value service activities,…
Do Banks Need a Chief Sales Officer?
A recent client meeting focused on how the bank could step up its sales efforts. Faced with strong growth demands and a more challenging market environment, many bankers attending that…
Are the Wheels Falling Off Bank Profitability?
In early July, The Economist featured a story on U.S banks titled “Tighter Times Ahead.” Similarly, last Thursday’s Wall Street Journal published an article, “Bank Stocks May Face Rough Ride.”…
Why Banks Still Can’t Sell, Part II
Two weeks ago, our newsletter focused on some of the factors that make most banks mediocre, at best, selling institutions. Among the sales impediments we mentioned: Many banks have traditionally…
Why Banks Still Can’t Sell
In recent years, banks have benefited from a set of positive circumstances that are quickly disappearing, including: a surging refi mortgage market, the ability to fund long-term portfolio investments with…