Chase Introduces Instant Action Text Alerts to Allow Customers to Avoid OD's Immediately

In the February 2010 Javelin Strategy and Research report on financial alerts, some of the major flaws of current alerts included difficulty of setting alerts up, lack of timeliness, not actionable enough and poorly marketed. In addition, the research found that one of the highest utility features from both a customer and bank perspective is the ability to alert and respond to potentially insufficient funds.

Expanding on their very popular low balance alert mobile banking feature, Chase Bank just introduced a new feature that addresses many of these flaws by allowing customers to easily respond to a low balance alert from the bank by immediately transferring funds through text messaging.

Capital One Continues to Innovate

Historically an aggressive marketer and innovator in the credit card industry, Captital One has expanded its reach in recent years, using their growing banking franchise as the foundation for introducing innovative banking products. In addition to having a relatively rich debit rewards program and expanding into online and small business banking, they have recently introduced a new savings product called "InterestPlus Online Savings".

The saving program offers an above market interest rate on balances over $2,500 in addition to a 10% quarterly interest bonus payment paid if the customer uses their Capital One credit card once a month.

Building Long-Term Deposits and Relationships Automatically

Over the past several years there have been a number of financial institutions that have built automatic savings programs where customers can set goals, establish recurring transfers between accounts to fund the goal(s), and track their savings progress.

One of the first programs developed was the Orange Savings Account from ING Direct which greatly simplified the process of opening new accounts for various savings goals. Following the success of the Orange Saving Account, SmartyPig was another program with that same goal in mind, making it easy for a customer to setup savings goals.

A customer can name their accounts, set the deadline for reaching their goals and even use an interactive calculator to determine the amount they will need to set aside each month. What makes Smartypig unique is that they added a social element to the mix . . . allowing other people such as friends and family members to contribute to the customer's goals as well.

Now's the Time to Build Retirement Dialogue With Your Customers

In yesterday's post, I discussed the significant deposit growth being experienced by major banks and the opportunities and risks that can be associated with an economic environment of uncertainty. An often overlooked opportunity for account acquisition and relationship growth is delivering on consumer's retirement needs.

Now is the best time to reach out to customers and prospects in your market area and position your institution as the safe and secure place to place their retirement assets. And with retirement assets approaching $20 trillion, the opportunity is significant.

Growth in Deposits Presents Opportunities and Risks

The American Banker today had an article detailing the recent trend of low cost deposit growth experienced by the major banks in the fourth quarter of 2009. According to KBW Inc.'s Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, the top 40 banks experienced a deposit growth rate of 8% in the quarter, with only a couple large banks intentionally allowing higher-cost deposits inherited during acquisitions to run off during the year.

Even though interest rates remain extremely low, consumers were still saving at a rate of 4.7% as a percentage of disposable income in November, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis primarily due to uncertainties in the marketplace and due to the view of banks being the safe harbor for funds accumulated during a time of reduced spending.