Framing Priorities
Don't say Bank of America Corp. doesn't know its Manet from its Monet.
The bank's appreciation for fine art was exhibited this week as it donated $1 million to the Miami Art Museum's $120 million capital campaign.
The gift, bestowed by the Bank of America Charitable Foundation, will fund a five-year endowment for new artwork, as well as the naming of a gallery in the museum's new building in Miami's Museum Park, which is slated to open in 2013.
Charitable giving to arts and educational organizations by financial institutions has been on the decline as many banks have chosen to focus their resources, constrained by the recession, on organizations and causes dealing with economic development and health and human services. For B of A, housing and employment issues, specifically, have been priorities.
But art imitates life, right?
Mr. Popular
There are at least 1,568 people who "like" Vikram Pandit, the chief executive of Citigroup Inc.
That's not bad, considering all the heat bank CEOs have taken since the financial crisis (and the fact that he got a fat raise on Wednesday).
And that's only the tally on Pandit's Facebook page. Created by fans of the businessman in his native India, the page caught Citi's attention and the bank decided to partner with the creators and make it an official company-sanctioned page.
"If there's a fan base, you go out and embrace that," Frank Eliason, senior vice president of social media for Citi's North American consumer business, said Wednesday during a panel discussion at a conference in New York.
Though Pandit doesn't actually manage the page (no status updates here), he is certainly more of a presence on Facebook than his peers. No other CEO of a top-four bank has an official page.
Banks are admittedly late to the social media party, but there is evidence that they have at least begun to realize its importance and the branding and service opportunities it presents.
According to a report from the consulting and research firm Aite Group in Boston and Efma, a European financial association, a third of financial firms currently have no dedicated budget for social media initiatives, but 90% expect to have one by 2012. The study was based on a survey conducted in October 2010 of 166 financial services executives in the U.S. and Europe.
Other experts on the panel with Eliason — during a conference sponsored by the financial research website Finextra on how finance companies can adopt a social media strategy — agreed that CEOs who are personable and savvy enough to engage with customers online should be encouraged to do so.
"Our CEO in Canada is heavily followed" on Twitter, said John Owens, head of marketing at ING Direct. "He tweets often. Our CEO in the U.S. has a handle, but doesn't use it frequently.
"If you have a CEO that can take a stance and has a personality, that's fantastic, but you can't force it," he added.
For now, a Facebook page might be enough for Pandit.
"Vikram is not going to be out there tweeting," Eliason said. "But he loves social media. … From a business perspective, he has a lot of thoughts about it."
World Citizen(s)
Citizens Financial Group Inc. Chief Executive Ellen Alemany took home a prize for good corporate citizenship.
The Foreign Policy Association, which exists to promote public education in world affairs, gave Alemany its corporate social responsibility award for promoting civic involvement at her company, a Providence, R.I., subsidiary of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC. She encouraged Citizens employees to support 2,000 nonprofits, the announcement of the award said.
"At a moment when the public view of the banking industry has been greatly diminished, Ellen exemplifies the good that bankers can do when they focus on the needs of their communities," said Noel V. Lateef, the association's president and CEO.
Strategic Hire
Mark Watkinson was named senior executive vice president and head of commercial banking in North America for HSBC Bank USA NA, the 470-branch retail arm of the London banking giant
The 25-year HSBC veteran succeeds Christopher Davies, who was named deputy chief executive of HSBC's China division. Watkinson had been regional president for central and eastern Canada.
