'Branch Networks Are Orchards, Not Cemeteries': Comments of the Week
December 20, 2013 7:30 AM
American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. As excerpted from the Comments sections of AmericanBanker.com articles.
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On Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's assertion that more financial reform may be needed:
"The answer from regulators is always more regulation. It's what they do. The quaint approach of actually allowing bad companies to go out of business is too sensible."
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
On a call for banks to start killing off their branches:
"Killing seems a little severe. Surely many of them can be rehabilitated."
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On a call for banks to start killing off their branches:
"Your branch network should be managed like an orchard not a cemetery
If you don't occasionally prune and redeploy, odds are good you value your ego above the needs of those you serve."
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On a call for banks to start killing off their branches:
"Banking, like other businesses, is all about relationships."
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On a call for banks to start killing off their branches:
"The tide is quickly shifting and branches are heavy anchors for banks that have immense overhead expenses to drag around."
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On whether banks need to go digital:
"Banks that thumb their nose at the traditional customer are banks that are being replaced by credit unions."
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On small banks considering digital products:
"Online and mobile are staples. In the absence of a price or other meaningful difference, why would someone choose an 'out of market' community bank over a local bank with the same digital capabilities and branch presence?"
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On banks offering check-cashing services:
"An alternative headline for this article could be 'Banks Finally Offer a Service That Underbanked Consumers Want.'"
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On banks struggling to resolve customer complaints:
"It's time to pay attention to the content of those complaints in the [Consumer Financial Protection Bureau] database, and at least pretend to start some sort of effort to regain the trust of a public that has been badly burned."
Pictured: Richard Cordray, CFPB Director
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(Image: Bloomberg News)
On whether a Hippocratic Oath for regulatory guidance is needed:
"The oaths regulators take should be amended to make sure that taxpayers' equity stake in TBTF institutions is monitored directly and serviced fairly."
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On regulators likely missing yearend deadlines on key regulations:
"Sad, but by no means unbelievable."
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On whether banks are ready for quantum computing:
"No matter how fast it runs, and how fast the algorithm compiles, the model is still just a model. It is not the territory, and until those pulling the levers come to a deep understanding of this difference, the crashes will only come faster and cut deeper."
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