Don't let your bank fall victim to outdated preconceptions of strategy. Traditionally, strategy has been made out to be a big, scary word. It sounds daunting, dark, and almost threatening. Or, at the very least, kind of boring. But what you're thinking of is the strategic planning of the past.
Make strategic planning a priority that your team will take ownership of in a positive way. Here's how to put a fresh twist on your institution's strategy.
Virtually every business prepares a budget and calls it planning. Some actually develop strategic plans every couple of years to go through an exercise in search of new ideas and approaches. Very few, if any, reap or even appreciate the benefits of planning outside of the financial benefit they hope to realize. While the intentional outcome of these efforts is profit-based, the other powerful benefits are often overlooked. This includes building the necessary buy-in and trust within the organization to achieve the financial goals. For many organizations, this is the missing key that’s needed to support effective execution of the plan. It’s the lack of genuine buy-in that confines the plan to the top shelf of a bookcase somewhere.
When I made the leap to marketing after years of sales, I immediately rewound the last 25 years and watched a virtual VHS tape (yes, that old - click this if you don't remember) in search of what I learned. You see, I didn't have the luxury of learning on the job this time, I had to apply what I already knew and apply it fast.
With so many different community banks offering so many different products, banks often ask us how they can better compete on product offerings. If a bank is offering two checking accounts with no monthly fee, three with rewards, and one with insurance, what should a competitive bank offer in response?
Trust. Nearly a decade after the global financial crisis, banks are still struggling to win it back from the general public. According to a recent study from Brunswick Group, only 27% of Americans trust banks. And globally, 56% of people favor smaller, more personal banks – this provides community banks with a huge opportunity.
In the last 5-10 years, there's been a lot of growth in DDA, NOW, MMDA, and savings accounts. These deposits can provide a great low-cost funding base, but they can also draw attention at your next exam.
Examiners are looking closely at these surge deposit balances. Specifically, they're looking to see if you've considered surge deposits in 3 ways.
Read this guest blog by Kevin Masi, Co-Founder & CMO at Torque Digital, to learn how proposal software is defining their brand and could influence yours.
Since I started my business in 1992, we’ve always looked for ways to improve our marketing, our finances and our operations. As we’ve gotten better, what I’ve also found is that these three areas are much more interconnected than I had ever considered. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say that because of growing competition, the need to differentiate ourselves from competitors is more critical than ever. Brands are the expression of what makes a business different and valuable to the market. And we are beginning to see all the ways that operations affect our brand – and seeing how our handling of financial matters also affects our brand.
Backtesting can be a painful topic for bankers. In this post, I'll answer the top 5 most common questions I hear about backtesting. I'll reference my first post, Independent Review, Model Validation, and Backtesting: Same Thing, Only Different, so you might want to revisit it before reading on. In that blog, we looked at the interrelationship of these three items and brought up a few questions on backtesting.
Specifically, we questioned 5 things: who should do it, how often should it be done, what period should be covered, do you need to backtest model results and assumptions, and why even bother if market rates really aren’t changing.
In its Semiannual Risk Perspective, the OCC said strategic risk remains high as banks consider business model changes and face revenue challenges.
It's a new year. It's a good time to evaluate performance and revisit overall bank strategy. The new year also means looking into sales techniques. Of course you focus on prospective clients, but what about everyone else? Who is everyone else? Good question...