Plansmith Blog

I have been in the banking industry since 1979, and on March 22, 2018 I received a copy of something that I never thought I would see that made me say out loud, “It’s about time!”

It was a letter to Members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation. The content of that letter was to express strong support for bill S. 2155, the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief and Consumer Protection Act. What surprised me was that it was signed by the presidents and CEOs of 4 financial trade associations, comprised of both banks and credit unions.

So, you decided to open a new branch? This comes after you’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on new electronic delivery technologies. It also comes after we just hit a record for financial institution branch closures. And let’s also add the fact that lobby traffic has reduced by 10 times the rate of those branch closures. Given these facts, how can you know if you’re making the right decision?  

Since the mid-1960s change has been a constant. The only real change is the rate of change. For years there have been predictions of shrinkage in the number of banks – the prediction is finally coming true. There has been a big change in the number of institutions (over 16,000 in 1972 to about 5,000 today). The environments they serve and the ways in which they serve has changed. Competition, consumer attitudes, market demographics, regulations, products, and technology have all had their impact.

The saddest thing I see with banks and credit unions is probably not what you'd think.

It's not a lack of passion for people, or even a disparate set of products that fail to match up with customer needs. In fact, banks and credit unions excel at both of these and they play a big role in creating a unique customer experience.

I could continue to list things, but you still wouldn't guess. Why? Because it's something we don't even think about it's so foreign to us.

Smart choice - that's a bold statement. But believe me, I wouldn't use those words if it weren't the truth.

The New Year is a great time to prep and review. That's why I've picked the top 3 Lunch 'n Learns you should review before diving into 2018.

We all like to start the new year with aspirations to renew, realign, and regain control of our world.

I don’t know about you, but those words just get me pumped.

Garry Kasparov. You might only know him as a former world chess champion; perhaps the greatest of all time.

Banks and credit unions have made leaps in the way of social media in the last year. But, there's still tremendous opportunity waiting to be seized.

The idea behind social media is that it's simply another method of communicating with your audience. If you'd like to read more about social media best practices, you can read about it here, but that's not the purpose of this article.

Why does strategic planning matter? Jim Fugitte, Director of Strategic Advisory Services, explains that banks with a strategy outperform their peers – when they execute the plan.