Bank Innovation

JUNE 29, 2012

This is where frequently asked questions and answers would go. 1. How do I submit a post?

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Jeff For Banks

OCTOBER 28, 2012

'Banking is becoming increasingly and irreversibly data driven. The amount of information we collect on customers exceed most industries, with the possible exception of the medical industry. Much like medical, the information we collect is highly personal. Since outsiders (i.e. thieves) want our money, this data is constantly under hacker siege. But, in my experience, bankers don''t often effectively use the data they have for good.

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Big Data Data Management Report 102

Money and Payments

NOVEMBER 27, 2012

'The last month, the ECB published a report on virtual currency schemes. I have been reading this with great interest as it signals the involvement of the central banks in a new area: virtual currrencies. The relevance of this report must therefore not be misunderstood. We should remember that in 1994, the EMI-report on pre-paid cards signalled the start of the regulation of prepaid-cards and electronic money products.

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Report Regulation Cards Retail 37

Bank Innovation

AUGUST 9, 2012

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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Innovation 150

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Jeff For Banks

NOVEMBER 3, 2012

'I had a very interesting conversation with a bank client today. He called me to discuss, among other things, his bank''s expansion strategy. During the discussion, I mentioned that I had recently driven by one of his branches and that it was the biggest in town. What he said about it inspired this post. Being the biggest branch in town, in terms of square footage, is not something cheered among industry pundits these days.

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Jeff For Banks

FEBRUARY 19, 2012

'My firm constantly evaluates industry trends and happenings to formulate what we term our Industry Overview. Although a constant process involving hypothesis, research, and re-evaluation, we center our thinking annually to ensure we properly debate, debunk, and determine where our industry is moving. As part of the process, our staff does a lot of research.

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Community Bank Community Industry Strategy 95

Jeff For Banks

MARCH 10, 2012

'I recently taught Bank Profitability to a Washington Bankers'' school. As part of the curriculum, we discussed the cost structure of financial institutions and how it impacts decision making. True to the subject, we discussed using product profitability data to make decisions. For example, if a product is unprofitable, should we make changes to it or cut our losses?

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Resources Washington Operations Groups 89

Jeff For Banks

FEBRUARY 11, 2012

'I hope the title of this post compelled you to read its contents. If so, I suppose you are expecting me to offer my opinion on the most recent thought leadership on word-of-mouth and direct mail marketing. But I will not. Instead, I will offer you my opinion on a book whose author is not 100% known, but thought to be a Syrian from Antioch named Luke.

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Marketing Leadership Taxes Groups 89

Jeff For Banks

NOVEMBER 24, 2012

'Reality shows are generally not my thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’m often subjected to the genre because I submit to family preferences. How else would I know that Emmitt Smith is quite the twinkle toes. But, while channel surfing, I discovered Shark Tank. On Shark Tank (see the clip below), entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of angel investors, known as sharks, to win funding for their enterprise.

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Community Capital Community Bank Dallas 87

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Jeff For Banks

SEPTEMBER 15, 2012

'According to an ABA survey (see table), I doubt it. I am speaking at the upcoming ABA Marketing Conference next week. Well, maybe not as much speaking as appearing. Mary Beth Sullivan and I are appearing as guests of Susquehanna Bank''s Susan Bergen, in an Oprah like talk show format. I suggested Saturday Night Live''s Point-Counterpoint format, but it was rejected.

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Conference Resources Survey Groups 87

Jeff For Banks

MAY 2, 2012

'About 10 years ago my firm analyzed the hundreds of branches in our profitability database to determine exactly what is "critical mass". We sorted by pre-tax profit contribution as a percent of branch deposits, and further sorted by "direct" profits and "fully-absorbed" profits. The results were not surprising to me. In order to be profitable on a direct cost basis, a branch needed to be $9.5 million in deposits, on average.

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New York City Taxes New York Groups 86

Jeff For Banks

JANUARY 21, 2012

'Financial institutions are currently struggling to identify the next generation leaders. Should we fall back on our old playbook, selecting highly "experienced bankers" that have been around and are likely to be the mantle bearers for the good old days, or should we think differently? The manner at which we choose leaders is not very effective, in my opinion.

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St. Louis Leadership Groups Industry 84

Jeff For Banks

JANUARY 3, 2012

'When performing ratio analysis to determine a company''s profitability we should remember that a ratio has at least two data points: a numerator and a denominator. It doesn''t matter if it is banking, retailing, or widget making. In banking, the standard profitability ratio has long been return on equity (ROE). That is. until the financial crisis of 2007-08.

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Capital Atlanta FDIC US 84

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Jeff For Banks

JUNE 17, 2012

'You recently read an excellent book on strategy. Your financial institution faces challenges. economy is crawling at road-kill pace, customers struggling to remain current on loans, regulators breathing hot and heavy down your neck. You need to assemble the team, assess your situation, chart your course. So you schedule a strategic planning retreat.

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Strategy Data Big Data Analysis 83

Jeff For Banks

DECEMBER 21, 2012

'The Gospel of Matthew reads (Chapter 2): "When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, ''Where is the newborn king of the Jews?'' We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage." King Herod dispatched them to Bethlehem. Matthew''s Gospel goes on to say: "And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.

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Leadership Regulation US Strategy 81

Jeff For Banks

AUGUST 29, 2012

'Retained earnings. I make a living helping financial institutions be as profitable as feasible. Why? To perpetuate their business model. This is how I feed my family. But profits have been under pressure since 2008. First, FIs experienced pressure in their investment portfolios, purchasing Fannie Mae preferred''s and other FIs trust preferred securities.

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Capital Retail Community Pennsylvania 80

Jeff For Banks

DECEMBER 13, 2012

'Welcome to my first installment of jfb Toons, a cynical look at how financial institutions operate. In this version, I migrate from the strategy development retreat to how that strategy is translated to day to day execution. I am occasionally confronted with facilitating plans for clients, only to come back one year later to find little has changed.

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Strategy Lending Groups Operations 79

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Jeff For Banks

DECEMBER 2, 2012

'Bloggers pepper me with insights on how to be a more successful blogger. One such insight is to create a compelling title. In this regard, this blog''s title is an outright fail. Try to say it three times fast! I recently sat in front of a client board committee reviewing the bank''s strategic alternatives (see a prior post on performing such analysis here ).

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Analysis Strategy Capital Groups 78

Jeff For Banks

JUNE 5, 2012

'Grow or die. Acquire or be acquired. Build it or kill it. And so go the banking platitudes. Now, perhaps those that invoke these phrases have strategies that compel them to grow. Shareholder value, so the logic goes, is created if I grow my balance sheet 10% per year and my earnings, because I''m realizing economies of scale, grow faster. But what if you adopt the strategy of the tortoise?

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West Virginia Strategy Virginia Industry 79

Jeff For Banks

JUNE 26, 2012

'I am attending the Financial Managers'' Society ( FMS ) Forum in Las Vegas this week. The Forum is chock full of education opportunities for banking finance professionals. One session caught my attention. The tandem speakers taught the audience about going "long", or at least longer, in their investment portfolio and minimizing risk. One of the underlying assumptions in advising to "go long" was that core deposits were as stable today as they were four years ago.

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Jeff For Banks

MAY 21, 2012

'I am sitting at Gate 124 in Orlando waiting for my ride home from a long journey. Prior to Orlando, it was Dallas. In Dallas, I taught bank profitability and strategic planning at the ABA School of Bank Marketing Management. The school is a two year program designed to transform up-and-coming marketing professionals into well rounded bank leaders. I have written a post on these pages regarding training programs (see Are your employees ESWS qualified?

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Training Kansas City Dallas Resources 78

Speaker: Brian Muse-McKenney, Chief Revenue Officer & Matt Simester, Cards and Payments Expert

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Community Bank

Jeff For Banks

APRIL 15, 2012

'On a recent plane ride I sat next to the Commander of the NCO Academy at Fort Jackson, South Carolina (see picture from one of last year''s classes). He is a reservist, and had interesting perspectives on how the military operates versus private industry. In his "real life", he is a sales manager for a pharmaceutical company. One form of training I fondly recall from my Navy days was Navy Leadership Development school, or NAVLEAD.

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Leadership South Carolina Training Community 78

Jeff For Banks

MARCH 4, 2012

'I frequently hear lamentations about the gap between the performance expectations of community financial institution (FI) personnel and performance results. A frequent challenge is that performance expectations are not documented in the form of job descriptions. Instead, expectations are often trapped between the ears of the supervisor or senior management.

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Jeff For Banks

JANUARY 28, 2012

'Community financial institutions are grappling with the recent and pending mortgage rules. We fear the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) and government''s tendency to fire a bazooka at an ant, causing tremendous collateral damage. New rules aside, we were not that significant in the mortgage market anyway. Aggressive mortgage brokers hawking products and programs from money center and category killer banks, and government or quasi government agencies such as Fannie and Freddie, were kil

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Marketing Pennsylvania Lending Community 78

Jeff For Banks

DECEMBER 26, 2012

'Last year I searched for the Top 5 financial institutions in total return to shareholders because I grew weary of the "get big or get out" mentality of many bankers and industry pundits. If their platitudes about scale and all that goes with it are correct, then the largest FIs should logically demonstrate better shareholder returns. Not so last year, and not so again this year.

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Texas National FDIC Capital 75

Speaker: Gary Dmitriev

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Innovation