Facebook entered the world of rewards last week, in direct competition with social media companies like Groupon, but as we mentioned to MSNBC good reward programs must do more than just offer reduced prices or trinkets.  Reward programs require well thought out strategies to increase spending and create loyalty for all parties concerned.  Read More »

Over 70% of wealth management executives expect to maintain or increase current budget levels for CRM technology over the next three years. Join our webinar to learn more about the future of CRM technology spend and to understand the CRM vendor landscape and the attributes that define a “best-in-class” CRM technology. Read More »

CEB TowerGroup believes that bankers may be following the wrong playbook when it comes to millennial consumers, born between 1981 and 2000.  To address this question, a panel of industry experts assembled at the CEB TowerGroup annual conference and included representatives from Hewlett-Packard, Iconoculture,  JP Morgan Chase and MasterCard.  A lively discussion ensued.  The panelists discussed acquisition and portfolio management techniques targeted to millennial consumers.  They debated the challenges of creating differentiation via service delivery and product designs, as well as ways to mitigate risk to maximize profits.  The discussion generated many tough questions from the large audience of attendees. Read More »

Volatile global equity markets and record low US interest rates have impacted the investment income and risk-based capital levels of life and annuity insurers. New reserving standards coupled with an increasing policy base will stress reserving systems, demanding large amounts of computing power and accurate data to process reserves quickly and correctly. To bridge the approaching reserve gap, insurers need to respond with mature processes and sound technology investments in actuarial systems. Read More »

One of the many provocative panel discussions at this year’s annual conference, held last week in Boston was the discussion about the key approaches for financial institutions to better understand and manage relationships. Members of the panel included senior sales management from Citi and RBS Citizens, product management at technology provider Oracle Financial Solutions and a senior research advisor from CEB. Read More »

Fraud management systems, a technology once perceived as secondary to card issuers focused on booking accounts and processing transactions, is now at the forefront as digital, internet and mobile payments proliferate.  Issuers must contend with attacks that attempt to breach the integrity of entry points as they evolve from protected physical locations to vulnerable virtual entry points. Read More »

More than 50% of wealth management firms identify limited new client acquisition and difficulty expanding existing relationships as major hurdles to achieving revenue growth. Among High-Net-Worth clients, 23% report considering changing wealth managers due to dissatisfaction with their client experience. To improve their clients’ experience, wealth management firms are focusing the majority of their technology investment in CRM. Read More »

Pressured by internal and external stakeholders, capital markets firms will be expected to provide increasing amounts of transparency and disclosure, especially as new regulatory measures, such as Dodd-Frank, UCITS IV, and Solvency II take effect. New requirements for additional data and detailed investment performance disclosure will compel organizations to make investments in strengthening their reporting infrastructure. Our recently released Client Reporting Solutions Technology Analysis serves as a resource to help securities firms benchmark their own effectiveness and develop a selection process to identify a tool or service that will best meet their reporting needs. Read More »

Prior to 2010, consumer tablet usage worldwide was practically zero. By November 2011, 10% of adults in the United States owned a tablet and that number almost doubled in three months, by January 2012.  And tablets are not just gaining speed in the US.  Over 7% of the Eurozone adult population now own a tablet and over 8% of Canadian adults own tablets. Read More »

Banking Top 25 is based on annual filings for 2011, highlighting business accomplishments of three main types of US banking institutions. You will find rankings based on total assets and total deposits for Bank Holdings, Commercial Banks and Credit Unions. Read More »