As a result of the interagency statement issued last February, everyone has revised sales presentation and disclosure policy.
By the time a transaction has been completed [at Banc One], a customer has seen a written disclosure no fewer than six times, signed a page with a prominent disclosure twice, and has discussed the procedure during the sales presentation. The percentage of customers that may be confused has been drastically reduced.
We ask clients to sign a form that explains that the investment is not FDIC insured, that principal can fluctuate, and that there are sales charges and fees associated with the investment.
We train our representatives to disclose these and make sure the form is reviewed and signed before we complete the transaction. In surveys of clients who make investments, we found only 5% who are not sure about their investments.
We have done a lot of surveys to follow up with customers. It's good marketing. And, as a result of the surveys, we have made changes to the statements that we mail to customers.
Also, our materials are in simple language. The warnings [about mutual funds, lack of Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. protection! are as clear as regular type. We also extensively train our people and send them to seminars.
We have made it a point to train both trust and investment sales representatives to perform more as financial consultants than as transaction-oriented people.
Investment specialists offer educational seminars for customers, and we created a special software package that explains asset allocation. We've had a difficult market this year, but our redemptions have been extremely light.
