For This Bank, Branches Are Key to Defending Its Market Primacy
Sure, mobile and other digital channels have taken over many transactions. But many customers still want people to talk to when issues arise. At WSFS, they get them.
By Steve Cocheo, Senior Executive Editor at The Financial Brand
The struggle for primacy grows fiercer than ever, and Shari Kruzinski is right on the front lines.
"Everyone’s chasing primacy," says Kruzinski, EVP and chief consumer banking officer at WSFS Bank. "It’s not just other banks our size. It’s also bigger banks, it’s credit unions, it’s fintechs. There’s a lot of competition out there."
Kruzinski has been in banking for about 40 years, 36 of them at WSFS Bank. During her time there the bank — officially Wilmington Savings Fund Society, FSB — has adopted all the digital services consumers have come to expect these days, from mobile banking apps to Zelle to digital wallet payments for its debit and credit cards. Digital fulfills a lot of what consumers usually need, says Kruzinski.
But Kruzinski thinks the key to the fight for primacy is person-to-person service — meaning both staff and branches.
The bank likes the motto that its initials are for "We Stand for Service," and the banker insists this is more than a catchy phrase. The bank invests in training its front-line staff and she says their engagement is high. They tend to stay longer with the bank, and she says this helps build connections with customers.
"Our customers’ balances are higher than average and their tenure with the bank is longer than average," she says. In addition, WSFS’s net promoter score ranks in the top quintile for the rating.
It’s more than solely the staffers that have helped WSFS, where deposits rose by 4% year over year in 2024. Kruzinski says that the bank’s branch network fills a critical need for consumers of all demographics.
"It’s very easy for people to bounce around these days," says Kruzinski. "It’s quick to open up an account. It’s quick to close that account and to move to another bank, to jump on an offer or some new marketing campaign. Accounts are just not as sticky."
Kruzinski says the churn that digital-only providers experience illustrates the difficulty of relying solely on that single channel.
"It’s difficult to build a relationship exclusively through the digital channel and I think the pendulum’s been swinging back a little bit," says Kruzinski. "We want to provide the tools that are convenient for our customers, particularly for routine transactions, but we want to absolutely engage with them in person, and have the best people to serve them in those moments."
The bank recently introduced free access to the Greenlight app and a Greenlight debit card tied to a WSFS account for minors. Even while Greenlight is a digital offering, Kruzinski sees the move as a service to parents who are trying to teach their children about money, and an investment in the future in anticipation of kids graduating to full-fledged relationships in the years ahead.
‘Moments of Truth’: Why Branches Still Matter
WSFS has 88 branches, most located in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania in the Greater Philadelphia and Delaware region. This reflects both the organization’s original branch network as well as offices acquired in various deals over the years. The bank had assets of $20.8 billion at the end of 2024. The bank holds a leading deposit share in the region.
Kruzinski says both commercial and consumer customers remain very branch dependent despite the bank’s digitization. Not for transactions, typically, but when they need to talk to a person.
"The moment customers have a challenge, a problem, a life-event, they make a beeline into the branch," she says. "I like to call these ‘moments of truth,’ when they need to see us physically when they are having one of those life events. We’ve got the best people in the market to serve them and to resolve that or to help them with whatever issue they are trying to navigate."
Kruzinski says WSFS finds that the need for branches and human contact continues into Generation Z, in spite of its image as an all-digital cohort.
"They’re looking for advice, as are Millennials, and consultations, as life events happen," she explains. "And they’re running into the same problems that we all encounter, such as being victim of a fraud. So, we’re finding that they’re also gravitating towards our branches for those kinds of things."
Reflecting this evolving need, as the bank gradually redesigns its branches it continues to deemphasize features that facilitate transactions, which have substantially moved to digital, and instead lean into consultation.
"We’re focused on open spaces that are more conducive to conversations. In some branches, we have spaces that we call ‘living rooms’ because they’re so comfortable," says Kruzinski.
She adds that these new spaces are the opposite of the "hard and dark and almost intimidating" environment of some of the branches she worked in early in her career.
Suburban branches are typically within a 10-minute drive of where most WSFS customers live. In urban markets the distances tend to be shorter. "They’re huge billboards for us," says Kruzinski.
Specialists, such as mortgage lenders, also work out of many WSFS branches — again, in part to meet the preference for face-to-face consultation.
In recent years, the company has been pushing further into wealth management and personal trust services, through multiple acquisitions, including Bryn Mawr Trust in 2021. (Consumers account for about 48% of the company’s deposits, while trust and wealth management provide about 15%.)
"In a recent conversation with the head of wealth, they were sharing that when they are going after business, they’re finding that even though a client may or may not ever come into a branch, the fact that there is a physical branch that they can see in the market is important," says Kruzinski. "It lends to the brand and the overall comfort they have in doing business with WSFS." (The bank had $89 billion in assets under management and administration at the end of 2024.)
Vying for Share of Market with Large Players like Chase
JPMorgan Chase identified WSFS’ main market as a priority area for expansion back in 2018, and the Philadelphia market was included in an additional, fresh 500-branch push announced by Chase a year ago.
This is all part of a multi-pronged expansion and optimization of Chase branching around the country. When the subject comes up, Chase executives generally speak of significant gains made where they expand and of the bank’s insistence that branches remain very important for establishing new customer relationships.
Kruzinski says that WSFS is up against expansionary Chase "absolutely every day. Clearly, they have seen the value of having a physical branch footprint."
Chase is a significant factor in the market overall, but Kruzinski says WSFS and Chase have very different strategies, even though both call for use of branches.
"Our differentiator is that we’re focused on the consumer, the business customer, the wealth client that is interested in a high level of personalized service and who is interested in working with local decision makers," says Kruzinski.
She says WSFS branch staff are part of the communities they serve and that that resonates with customers. "We’re the bank of choice for them," according to Kruzinski.
"Everybody that works here wakes up in the morning focused on this market, and that’s a very different strategy than Chase," she says.
While Chase has been hiring in the market, Kruzinski says WSFS hasn’t seen an impact on its employee base. "They’re here because they want to be here, and they are really attached to what we are doing," she says.
Kruzinski says WSFS, as the largest local player in the region and yet still a smaller local entity compared to the majors in its markets, can bring a nimbleness to the competition that she doesn’t believe a megabank like Chase can match.
"So we’re focused on what we are doing in the market," says Kruzinski, "and we’re not spending a ton of time thinking about Chase."
Read more: Chase Ramps Up Its Community Banking Push. Can Local Brands Compete?
Greenlight, WSFS and Future Generations
WSFS announced its partnership with Greenlight Financial Technology in early March. It joins a number of other financial institutions that have adopted Greenlight as an outreach to families with kids and teens who want to teach financial literacy. Families that connect their WSFS account to the Greenlight debit card.
Kruzinksi says the appeal of Greenlight is that it enables the bank to reach kids and teens where they are — on their devices. The account facilitate parental supervision and control of spending, as well as features like issuing parental rewards and allowance and chore payments in a digital fashion. Kruzinski’s own children are using the product, with one older sibling receiving a $1 incentive for going through banking lessons on the app.
She sees Greenlight giving WSFS a two-way boost. At least 25% of existing consumer customers have kids that fall into the Greenlight age bracket. This can help the bank deepen its relationship with the parents while also introducing the bank to their children early on.
In addition, for families seeking a new banking provider, free access to Greenlight is a plus for starting a relationship with WSFS.
Kruzinski sees the new effort as a fresh version of an old meme. Earlier in her career she used to have adult customers reminiscing about how their first bank relationship was a WSFS savings account — complete with a passbook.
"We’re envisioning a future when customers will come in and say, ‘I had my first debit card with WSFS Bank’," says Kruzinski. She hopes the next thing they’ll say is that they want to hear about WSFS student loans or how to qualify for their first mortgage.
Read more about Greenlight: U.S. Bank Targets Kids as Lifetime Customers With Greenlight App Integration
