All articles by Charles Davis
Charles Davis
Whoo hoo!’ says WaMu
Seeking to distance itself from the wreckage of the mortgage business and play up its strengths in customer service, WaMu has launched a national ad campaign, jettisoning its long-running campaign featuring stereotypical fat-cat bankers in favour of a euphoric message, writes Charles Davis.Washington Mutual (WaMu), the largest US savings-and-loans institution (thrift), has kicked off a national ad campaign and introduced a new tag line Whoo hoo! designed to reflect moments of a dream-like state where customers visualise moments of personal elation in response to learning about WaMu products and services, according to a WaMu statement
Getting away from the Regions
Regions Financial, now one of the largest US financial services groups following the merger with AmSouth Bancorp in 2006, has rebranded its retail banking arm, Regions Bank Its an all-too-common marketing challenge: one regional US banking group merges with another and sets out to distinguish a newly integrated retail bank in the crowded retail marketplace.For Alabama-based Regions Financial, which merged with AmSouth Bancorp in November 2006 and became the USs tenth-largest bank holding company, inspiration struck in the form of the colour green and a bicycle.Why a green bicycle
Trading places
Against the backdrop of failed online brokerage models in the US and a depressed banking industry, a St Louis- based player is combining a fast-growing bricks-and-mortar network with a booming online channel, and will soon add online consumer banking to the mix.Scottrade says that it anticipates receiving the necessary regulatory approvals to launch an online thrift (savings and loan operation) during the first quarter of 2008, which the discount brokerage views as a launching pad for offering banking products throughout its brokerage branch network and its online business.Some of Scottrades competitors have spent a great deal of time and money over the past few years developing banking products and services, so it may very well be a matter of keeping pace with competition
Contactless goes mobile in Canada
RBC Royal Bank and Visa have joined forces to pilot Canadas first contactless payments trial using mobile phones equipped with near field communication technology
Twenty million and counting
Charles Davis talks to Ralph Bianco, senior vice-president and head of prepaid cards at US Bank, the sixth-largest retail banking player in the US The bank recently issued its 20-millionth gift card and is studying more efficient distribution channels such as ATMs as it looks to dominate the US market. When other US banks were just beginning to dip their toes in the prepaid card market, US Bank was developing a comprehensive distribution strategy aimed at each of the major issuance sectors from retail to payroll to benefits
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The fight for healthy profits
The fight for healthy profits Since health savings accounts were established in the US in 2003 with the intention of helping individuals save for future medical and retiree health expenses on a tax-free basis, an increasing number of US banks have targeted the health savings sector as a new revenue stream, writes Charles Davis.
Remember banker’s hours?
As US banks seek every potential advantage in the hyperactive suburban and exurban markets ringing population centres across the nation, opening bank branches on Saturdays and Sundays is becoming the norm, as are extended evening opening hours during the week.It seems like only yesterday that banking experts were writing off the branch altogether, as the online channel promised any time banking without the headaches of staffing bricks-and-mortar locations during the weekend
Closing down sale
The most significant casualty has been NetBank, an online-only bank that diversified quickly into mortgages and became over-exposed to the subprime segment Troubles mounting in the US mortgage industry may claim more banks before the crisis is past, reports Charles Davis.
Prime suspect?
Charles Davis reports from the US, where, in the wake of the subprime mortgage fiasco, marketing is playing a significant part in the way banks and other financial institutions talk to weary US consumers The high-profile US mortgage flameout will generate dozens of winners and losers in the US banking world (see Closing down sale), and banks heavy in the mortgage game are scrambling to distance themselves from the damage
The dream credit card?
Financial services consultancy Javelin Strategy & Research has outlined what it describes as the security features of a dream credit card An ideal credit card would put the cardholder firmly in control of the security protections available to them and would feature anonymous identifiers, truncated data and a host of other means to provide protection against a number of data crimes, the consultancy said in a recent study. Javelin qualified its study by noting that 8.4 million Americans had been identity fraud victims in 2006 at a cost to them of $50 billion