Small Business: Still Fighting for Respect
At a recent dinner, Tom Brown, the hedge fund manager and former banking analyst, commented that within most banks, the small business segment fails to receive the attention or priority…
Avoid the Low Road to Bank Profitability
This week, we are speaking at the Branch Banking Symposium sponsored by US Banker and American Banker. Our topic focuses on the emerging opportunity to link the retail branch system…
Why the Fleet Deal Worked for Bank of America
Bank of America’s acquisition of Fleet Bank was controversial; many analysts expressed skepticism of the price of the deal and the bank’s ability to wring value out of the combination….
Improving Cash Management Sales
Incredibly, cash management (CM) sales continue to be underexploited by many of the commercial bankers selling to small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs). We deliberately use the term “incredibly” for three…
The Basics: Leasing
With this newsletter, we continue our series presenting summary views on the areas in which we specialize. Over the past eight weeks, we have focused on small business, middle market…
The Basics – Wealth Management
With this newsletter, we continue our series presenting summary views on areas in which we specialize. (Our two previous newsletters focused on Small Business and Middle Market banking, respectively.) This…
The Basics: Small Business
Over recent weeks, clients, prospects, and friends have approached FIC, all expressing a need for insights about the “basics” of some of the areas in which we specialize. Reasons range…
Account Planning: A “Quick” Win
On both the consumer and commercial sides of banking, wallet-share penetration is poor. Typically, banks allow other players, whether banks or non-banks, to capture revenues that should be theirs. Too…
The American CEO
There seems no better way for a financial services executive to begin the New Year than by considering Peter Drucker’s most recent comments. Drucker is the dean of management consulting…
Themes for 2005 – Part Four: Continued Consolidation
This final Newsletter for 2004 continues our focus on issues and areas that we believe will be of critical importance in the next year. The three themes reviewed in past…