Snapshots: Quick hits from around the financial industry

Brief wrap-ups and items of interest

• Netbanker lists 46 financial institutions that are actively using Twitter.
  And here’s TMG’s list exclusively for credit unions.
• A banking journal warns that blogs and tweets can land you in compliance hell.
• There’s a new online tool that lets consumers search out how safe their bank is. Are you in the database?
• One of the causes of the economic crisis can be
  seen in this 30-second commercial on YouTube
  for Countrywide Mortgage, circa 2007.
• Here’s another YouTube video, a retro classic
  commercial for credit unions, circa 1975.

What does this teach kids about saving at a bank?

Here’s the deal: TD Bank would open a $10 savings account to every kid who read 10 books. The catch? There was a $2 monthly fee on the account.

One family signed up their 3 kids and now owes $6. Perhaps a more accurate way to phrase the promotion would have been, “Get a kid’s checking account free for five months when your child reads 10 books.”

Yes, we are ‘Heritage.’
No, we aren’t the one that failed.

Heritage Bank of Schaumburg would like everyone to know it’s not related to the one that failed February 27 — the infamous FDIC seizure featured on 60 Minutes earlier this year.

This is a painful reminder of why you never want to share your name with another financial institution, even if they are thousands of miles away.

10 Trends That Will Shape Financial Services in 2009

That’s the title of a new report written by senior analysts at Javelin. Their conclusions?

1. Throw out the old playbook.
2. The War for Deposits is on.
3. Banks must brace for a backlash from regulators and consumers.
4. Consumer cut back on credit.
5. Credit card industry faces squeeze.
6. Upstarts will try to break the mobile wallet stalemate.
7. Economic crisis will heighten fraud fears.
8. Fight against fraud will expand to many fronts.
9. Security becomes a brand-builder.
10. Historic times call for historic leadership.

The report is available for a reasonable EUR 365 through Research & Markets.

Search For More: Briefs, compliance, Countrywide, Heritage, Netbanker, TD, Twitter

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