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The products include savings accounts and CDs thatofferd incentives, perks and upgrades designede to assist customers with theirf short- and long-term savings goals. There’s also a groundswello of new financial literacy classea that take banking lessons into the workplace or Classes cover everything from avoiding foreclosure to strategies for thesophisticatedr investor. They’re usually free and don’t involves hard-core selling. But they do allow banks to get theire brand in front of thousandsof people. Response to ’s workplac e banking classes hasbeen “overwhelming,” says Melanie Regions’ consumer banking executive for Middl Tennessee.
“We became an automated industry in the spirir of quick communicationand speed,” Blani says. “But now people are gettinbg back tothe fundamentals. They are in a cash optimizatiob mode.” Regions also has introducec its SecondChance CD, which allowds customers a 1 percent market rate increasw if they meet their savinges goals for a The bank also has a no-penalth option that lets participants take one withdrawa l during the term of the CD. The bank also recently introduced a customerf assistance program for familiesin distress. This progranm helps participants reduce or restructurweproblematic loans.
Blank says the program has helpedabout 12,000 people nationwide avoid foreclosure. has had a workplace banking program called Work Perks forfive years. However, the economicv downturn has created a flood of new interesgt inthe program, says Paula Mansfield, vice president of workplacd banking for the bank’s Middle Tennessee branches. “Man companies are having to cut back on thingslike contributions,” Mansfield says. “They are lookingg for ways to show employees they are still conducted a series of focuss groups in Middle Tennesseew earlier this year todetermine customers’ needs.
“Thety said, ‘Help me save better, budgety better and save for college and People are worried that theirchildrehn don’t know how to invest,” says Connise White, marketing director for the Middlse Tennessee branches of Fifth Fifth Third also is rolling out Relationship a product that’s meant to encouragr savings and draw business to the bank. Customers who sign up for a Fifth Third checking account automatically get double the interestf rate on a savings account at the Another product, the Goal Setter savinges account, works with customers to set savings goals and rewardsz them with interest hikes.
White says the bank is lookingf ata double-digit increaser in deposits this year. Information from Fifth Third’sd market research inspired local branches to plan a serieaof “Health and Wealth” festivals. The grassroots events will be held at bank branchea and willfeature mini-seminars on savinf and budgeting, credit repair and affordable home Along with the financial classes will be diabetes screenings, a personal fitness trainer giving fitness healthy food booths and activities for children and massages. “Our researchu showed us that focuses should be placed on programd that reach youth as well as White says.
“It showed that to gain relevance, banks shouldr extend community outreachand presence.” White says Fifth Third also is seeing an increase in requests for workplace particularly from nonprofits. / reports a 10 percenft increase in users ofits 5-year-old Way2Save savingse account. It encourages customers to save bytransferring $1 from theirr checking account into a special savings accoun t each time they make a check card purchasew or an electronic payment. Customers earn 5 percent interesyt and a 5 percent annualp bonus in thefirst year, and a 2 percent annuap yield and 2 percent annualk bonus in the second and third years.
Way2Savde has had about 2 million participants, says Wendy Lawrence, Wachovia’ s banking executive in charge ofthe mid-South. “Consumers wanted to but didn’t know how,” Lawrencs says. “Now we are seeinb a wide interest, even from high school
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