Correspondent Blog

You oversee pricing your checking accounts and you are trying to decide between $10.00 per month, $9.99, or $9.95. Which one do you choose? In a prior article where we tested “charm” account pricing, where we showed that conversion rates were almost twice as high when we used a $1.99 price point for a product…

Should the Federal Reserve move their target Fed Funds rate down later this year, many bankers will immediately match the move and drop their deposit rates. While counterintuitive, this may be the exact wrong move if you want to optimize long-term bank profitability. This article explores deposit management tactics in a falling rate environment that…

We have discussed the importance of bundling or packaging deposit account services to speed up customer choices, increase profitability, and enhance deposit performance. However, many banks still offer just two choices, whereas if they offered three, they would increase profitability. In this article, we examine how behavioral deposit pricing works and how to use it…

In our industry, many banks need to put more thought into the science and strategy of deposit promotions. This is, unfortunately, occurring as the number of deposit promotions is approaching a near-term high, and banks are throwing away money like an untargeted ad campaign. Not leveraging media, not having a current deposit pricing strategy, not…

The art and science of optimized deposit gathering is a declining skill set among bankers. Banking schools don’t teach it, conferences don’t showcase it, and internal bank educators no longer train in the discipline. It is ironic as no other banking endeavor can build long-term franchise value like deposit gathering. Further, deposit gathering and its…

Many banks work hard to have a low-cost deposit base only to undermine their efforts. One of the biggest mistakes bank make when pricing deposits is advertising an above-market rate, thereby shortening deposit duration and increasing negative convexity for that one account and the whole product offering. This subtle distinction might be lost on many…