March 9, 2009

Totally not shocking: Financial brands plummet in value

Market capitalization of the world’s top 500 financial services brands dropped $3.9 trillion –or 51%– while brand value fell $218.1 billion, down 32%, according to Brand Finance’s third annual Global Banking 500 rankings, compiled in association with The Banker Magazine. The top 100 brands from the previous year lost 84% of all the brand value.

The upheaval in 2008 caused 198 of the brands in the 2007 rankings to disappear from the list entirely. These included the federally bailed-out Fannie Mae and the bankrupted Lehman Brothers.

Even in the glory days of our recent boom, it seemed hard to believe there were 500 financial brands worth measuring — even less plausible now. Maybe next year, the list will be cut back to something more reasonable, like 250? Read More

Hmmm, what’s this? A bogus charge?

Two online account aggregation companies are introducing new ways to help their users protect their hard earned dollars.

Mint will roll out a tool that automatically scans its 800,000 users’ accounts for potentially fraudulent charges.

Aaron Patzer, CEO/Mint, said the idea for the new product came after his company heard of a scam involving Adele Services of Melville, N.Y., a bogus merchant that was making 25¢ charges to millions of accounts. The news was widely reported, and Mint decided to check its users’ accounts its to see if any had been affected. It found 800 that were.

And in January, Wesabe announced a service that scans for unwanted recurring charges on its users’ accounts. Wesabe’s Cutback Tool finds recurring charges that people set-up long ago but have since forgotten about.

While banks have had fraud protection services in place for many years, none have been as proactive as these two new services. Read More

American Express paying customers $300 to leave

Selected members — the company won’t say how many — received letters with the voluntary offer a couple weeks ago. Each letter came with an RSVP code that, when submitted online, immediately cancels that member’s card. Members have until the end of April to pay off their balance, after which they will receive a $300 Amex prepaid gift card. Read More

Microchip on debit cards IDs customers at the door

Imagine this: Every time a customer walks into your branch, a screen pops up on your computer giving you the customer’s name, account number and even a photo.

Well, you can stop imagining.

Yes Bank in New Delhi has introduced radio frequency identification technology at one of its branches, and plans to roll the system out to its entire BRANCH NETWORK. The technology allows for personal identification of customers at the branch by inserting an RFID microchip into their debit cards.

The moment a customer enters the bank branch, his picture is taken at the entrance through hidden cameras. The card’s chip is encoded with a unique ID number that links to the customer’s data. The information is picked up even if the card is in a person’s wallet, pocket or bag. Read More

It’s time to put some ‘community’ in your community bank

Community banking is competitive, so you have to do something better than the competition in order to win. So why not start with a website that’s as much about the community as it is about the bank?

That’s the argument given by Darin Barry, a bank marketing strategist. While the notion of a community portal is nothing new in the financial industry — many have tried…and failed — Barry’s points about differentiation and “putting some ‘community’ in your community bank” are well-taken. Read More

Didn’t ‘MySpace’ wither and ‘Second Life’ and die?

A credit union think tank is plowing forward with its Second Life presence, something it’s had in the works for well over a year. And Citi is teaming up with MySpace to offer a new credit card “Citi ‘Forward’ by MySpace.”

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