A new study by BAI Research found that small businesses still do most of their banking at local branches. Consumers might be going mobile, but small businesses still prefer old-fashioned face-to-face banking. From the story: Small businesses continue to interact with- and transact at their branches. More than half of all business transactions are conductedRead More

Imagine two banks that have decided to grow accounts aggressively. Bank #1: Open Now, Fix Later The first bank opens accounts for nearly anyone who enters the branch. Applicants walk in, meet with a banker, and walk out thinking that they have an account. Back-office processing for new accounts takes place in batch mode atRead More

Earlier this month The Economist magazine hosted a lively debate on its site about the future of branch banking. Brett King, author of Bank 2.0, argued that bank branches are obsolete. He wrote: “Just like the publishing and media industries, a place is simply no longer a vital, necessary component of day-to-day banking. Bankers wouldRead More

Banks have invested millions of dollars in branch IT and training, but all too often the customer onboarding process remains frustrating and error-prone. Take the example of a friend of ours who recently opened an account with a major U.S. bank. She visited a local branch to open a checking account. The branch staff wereRead More

When someone walks into the branch of a financial institution to open an account, the branch personnel need to answer two questions. First, is this person who they say they are? Second, do we want to do business with them? After a cursory examination of the person’s driver license and a few background questions, mostRead More

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) records are obviously essential for any Financial Institution. CRM records are required for Know Your Customer (KYC) mandates, effective outbound sales and marketing initiatives, and daily business operations. You rely on your CRM records. But how are you entering these records in your CRM system? It turns out that CRM dataRead More