Most bankers would kill for the gilded reputation enjoyed by Morgan Guaranty Trust, but the nation's only AAA-rated bank has image problems of its own.
A recent survey of 30 wealthy clients in the funds management area of Morgan's private banking operations found a healthy dose of skepticism about the services they were receiving.
"I get the feeling that Morgan feels they are doing me a favor to take my business," said one client with "$10 million liquidity," according to notes prepared by a banker on results of the survey.
Clients with less than $5 million under management also objected to being placed in Morgan's asset-allocation service rather than getting active attention from a relationship manager." We can pick up our own mutual funds," one complained.
Some other conclusions of the study,which was conducted by McKinsey & Co.: One-third of funds management clients interviewed were "very happy" with Morgan; one-third were "more or less fulfilled, but not really happy"; the remainder were "unhappy or dissatisfied."
Morgan concluded that it has to do a better job on the "front end" to service its clients and cross-sell its products. "On a scale of 1 to 10, clients' knowledge of our products is a 4, "the report on the survey concluded. One money-management customer was ignorant of Morgan Guaranty Trust's ability to offer trust services.
