'Training bankers, not sales people': Comments of the week

Agreeing with the belief that community banks can succeed by solving problems rather than just selling products:

“Exactly! If we'd spent more of the last 20 years training bankers instead of training sales people our industry might be in better shape. Battling the regulatory monster has been a huge distraction for senior management, sucking away time for creative work in other areas. But we have ALLOWED this to distract us from growing that next tier of leadership who could be helping in the fight today!”

Related article:

Community banking’s future is in offering advice, not products

On JPMorgan Chase avoiding any reputational blowback from CEO Jamie Dimon advising President Trump:

“More business will be lost than gained by attacking the president. He was elected by the people and has their backing. Dimon is right to help the people's choice for president make America successful. Uber lost more business after Kalanick resigned and lost relatively little prior to that time. Musk is being funded by policies of the opposing political party.”

Related article:

JPM brand avoids damage from Dimon's ties to Trump ... for now

On former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers slamming Dimon for his ties to the Trump administration:

“Elite journalists/politicians live in their special insulated worlds, where ‘talking about others’, not ‘doing,’ is the norm. Summers is now added to that group. Dimon is doing what he believes is the right thing. What elites do not understand is that most self-made business owners, and many business executives (i.e. JP Morgan clients) admire Dimon's courage and patriotic aspiration vs. political positioning. Summers laments that Dimon is able to act with these virtues, while he cannot.”

Related article:

JPM brand avoids damage from Dimon's ties to Trump ... for now

A retort to an op-ed calling for banks to build emotional rapports with their customers:

"Context ... the author is apparently oblivious to the fact that these same financial institutions put more than three million people out of their homes less than ten years ago. The *emotions* associated with those brands are not, shall we say, positive. After torching a trillion dollars, the industry should probably focus more on rebuilding some sort of trust before they reach out for that first kiss. The scars are still pretty fresh for many of us, and they will not fade anytime soon."

Related article:

To woo customers, banks must create emotional brands

Responding to a Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce executive earning praise for a mortgage app that lets applicants snap photos to complete forms:

“Though this guy's buzzwords sound amazing, their impact … [is] a whimper. A mortgage app sounds appealing, [but] for many this is a big life decision & that’s where you need the relationship aspect of banking. Also, it does not have an Android version (WHAT??) which considering the target demographic is a big gap. They term it … as revolutionary, but why?”

Related article:

How bankers, techies and interns made mortgages mobile