Bank representatives' productivity rose by a little less than 13% in June, to $25,361 in combined fees and commissions, up from $22,485 in May, according to the Bank Insurance and Securities Association's Monthly Productivity Report.
Scott Stathis, the chief operating officer and a managing director at Kehrer-Limra, which gathers the data for BISA, said he was pleasantly surprised. "I thought June would fall through the floor, especially with fixed rates so low," he said. "But reps maintained their production pretty impressively."
It was not easy. Variable annuity sales fell 26% in June, and fixed annuity sales were down, too. But recurring revenue saved the day, growing by 32% overall, which made up the ground annuities lost.
Stathis attributed this impressive bump in fee revenue to a combination of growth in the value of assets under management and bank reps' growing experience in selling fee-based products.
The reps' production excluding fees was $15,253.
