Concern about those who have been left behind in receiving financial services (“the unbanked” and “the underbanked” ) have been popular topics of conversation amongst bankers and regulators over the past few years. An important thread of these conversations has been the fact that in many cases, it is the customers who are leaving the […]
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The Convergence of High Tech and High Touch in Wealth Management
I wrote a piece for the popular fintech blog netbanker yesterday on how high tech and high touch are converging in wealth management, and what I will be watching for in that convergence zone next week at Finovate Fall 2012 in New York. In the article, I mentioned that most of the notable traction to date has […]
USB CEO Davis Gives Advice to Bankers
Over the past two weeks I have been a Faculty Fellow at the Pacific Coast Banking School, the premier graduate school of banking, held at the University of Washington. It is energizing and humbling to be surrounded by so many talented students and faculty members. At last night’s keynote address, U.S. Bancorp CEO, President and […]
Is Bank Merger Mania Imminent?
The results of the Federal Reserve’s recent Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) stress tests have increased the long running speculation that another round of rampant bank mergers may by just around the corner. The number of banks in the U.S. is about half of what it was in 1990, and I don’t see anything […]
Does Your Team Have What It Takes To Thrive In A New Era?
In January of 2010 John Kim of Heidrick & Struggles wrote in a blog piece What bank leaders do you need post-crisis?: There may be little agreement about precisely where we stand in terms of economic recovery generally or financial services recovery specifically, but one thing is certain. When the inevitable recovery gets into full swing […]
Why Bankers Need to Think Like Private Fixed Income Investors
Banks are in the business of taking and managing risks. Get that wrong and you go out of business, and there are many recent examples. I have sometimes worked with advisors who view loans as just another product to sell. This type of advisor also tends to view anyone in the credit underwriting and approval […]