Finance Tips

The contemporary trends in Banking operations and services with the help of computers are quite cheering for customer. As we find information technology invading the banking sector, only banks, which used the right technology, could come out with success. Banks are required to ‘restructure’, re-invent and reengineer themselves go meet the necessary performance improvement and get the competitive edge due to the introduction of information technology (Internet Baking) being an imperative one

Application of Information Technology

Phone banking:

1. Bank on phone, provides easy access for customers to have large businesses through telephones. Data are exchanged over the phone regarding any queries, to issue instructions on balance transfer, statement of account, cheque- book, stop payments, new schemes, interest rates etc. at any convenient time and place. Tele banking has gone a long way in providing maximum customer satisfaction within the limited infrastructure.

Automatic Teller Machines: (ATM)

1. Now, the banks provide this facility in a more sophisticated way that a customer of one bank and branch can withdraw from any other banks, at any other branch, nation wide. In developed countries, this service is provided to their blue chip client globally. This is possible only through worldwide networking and communication system.

Credit cards:

These plastic cards enable customers to spend whenever he/she wants within the prescribed limits and pay later. Debit card is a prepaid card with stored value, whereas credit card is post paid with fixed limits. It is seen that spending is higher through debit cards than with credit cards currently CITY Bank and time bank have started with Debit cards and now other banks are also following these to launch their own cards. Continue reading ‘INTERNET BANKING SERVICES IN BANKS-BOON TO CUSTOMERS’ »

For business owners considering SBA financing as a way to either purchase or refinance a commercial property for their business, there are many distinct benefits over comparable conventional bank financing with the SBA programs. The main benefits of SBA financing include, higher loan to value, reliability of closing, and good loan programs.

SBA Loan Financing

90% financing via the SBA loan program is common on purchases whether via the SAB 7a program or the 504 program. 85% financing on refinances is common on the 7a program as well. Comparable conventional loans are for the most part capped at 65 -70% of purchases and 55% – 60% on refinances.

For most small businesses keeping as much cash in the business, and not tying it up in there building is critical. Reserve are absolutely needed to help weather the ups and downs of day to day business. Running out of cash is one of the leading causes of failed businesses.

SBA Loan Financing – Reliability of Closing

Banks are very skittish these days. They underwrite files with more of an attitude of “how can we decline the file” rather than “how can we get this done.” You probably have friends (or you may have lived through this yourself) with horror stories of being tied up with a convention bank for months, waiting for them to make some kind of decision. Being strung along, month after month. Continue reading ‘SBA Loan Financing, The Major Benefits’ »

While most community banks may not have had the difficulty that the large money center banks have had since the mortgage market began to unravel, this is, none-the-less, a time that is testing bank managers and bank directors in banks of all sizes throughout the country – and the world for that matter. My banking career dates back to 1977, and the tough economic times and record-high interest rates of the late 1970s and early 1980s at times still seem fresh in my mind. That is the only period during my career that rivals today’s banking environment.

Then and Now – Major Differences and Similarities

The main difference between the economic environment back then and the current environment is that high unemployment caused a real estate crisis back then, but in today’s crisis, a real estate crisis caused high unemployment. Also, at that time, we had record-high interest rates and very high inflation versus the record low interest rates and the possibility of deflation now. The double-edge sword of high credit losses and deposit costs exceeding large segments of the average financial institution’s loan yields may have made our fundamental issues even greater to overcome then than now. As an industry, we were not as well capitalized back then as we are today. The greatest fear now is that we don’t know where the bottom is. The major similarity of then to now is that we see many banks that, by most measures, are considered to be well-managed, having less than desirable regulatory examinations and, in many cases, entering into a regulatory agreement.

Be Proactive in Your Response

While we are always sorry to learn that a bank is having difficulties, we understand that a regulatory enforcement action or just-less-than-ideal examination is a very tough experience. It is, however, very important for the board and management to remain positive and to aggressively lead the organization through this difficult but necessary regulatory process. It has been our experience that institutions that have been proactive and have embraced this trying time have fared relatively well, and often have stated that the organization was significantly improved by those changes. Institutions that fought the process or that proceeded from the prospective of only meeting regulatory demands ultimately did not fare as well. We urge you to not just do the minimum that is required, but to do more than is required. Don’t just meet a deadline, but beat the deadline. Continue reading ‘Regulatory Enforcement Actions in Today’s Banking Environment’ »

I needed to transfer some funds from Ireland to France and posted a cheque drawn on an Irish Building Society to my bank in Juan-Les_Pins, France. I posted this by signed for delivery as I wanted to ensure it arrived there ok A few days after sending the cheque I went online and there was no credit. My first reaction was that they had not received it.

The bank my wife and I use are not the best at communicating and a couple of months earlier they had written to say that one of our new bank cards was waiting for collection at the local branch. We wrote to them twice requesting it be posted as we are not resident in France and so rather difficult to collect and the third copy went with the cheque we wanted banking. Whenever we are in the area, you can find that they are not always open, it could be a Monday and because they work Saturday mornings they close on a Monday, or arriving just when they close for a long lunch hour on the remaining days of the week that they actually open on. Continue reading ‘Sending a cheque from one euro zone country to another is frustrating and very expensive…don’t bother’ »

When it comes to paying bills, let’s face it, this is a task everyone would love to avoid. However, with direct debit it has become easier and accepted worldwide. With a click of your mouse, you can set up scheduled, recurring and one time payments. It takes only a few minutes and a few steps to complete the process and you are ready to go.

The initial set up phase is the most important and time consuming. In this phase, you will need to enter all your vendor information for each individual account payable. Once this task is complete, you are then able to pay as many vendors as you wish quickly and easily every week or month. Payments are credited to you account on the day specified by you, so you can avoid late fees and service interruptions and you save money on stamps and envelopes. Just think – no more writing checks! Continue reading ‘Paying Bills Online’ »

Importance of CRM

Customer relationship management is a broad approach for creating, maintaining and expanding customer relationships. CRM is the business strategy that aims to understand, anticipate, manage and personalize the needs of an organization’s current and potential customers. At the heart of a perfect strategy is the creation of mutual value for all parties involved in the business process. It is about creating a sustainable competitive advantage by being the best at understanding, communicating, and delivering and developing existing customer relationships in addition to creating and keeping new customers. So the concept of product life cycle is giving way to the concept of customer life cycle focusing on the development of products and services that anticipate the future need of the existing customers and creating additional services that extend existing customer relationships beyond transactions.

Present and Future of CRM in banking

Bank merely an organization it accepts deposits and lends money to the needy persons, but banking is the process associated with the activities of banks. It includes issuance of cheque and cards, monthly statements, timely announcement of new services, helping the customers to avail online and mobile banking etc. Huge growth of customer relationship management is predicted in the banking sector over the next few years. Banks are aiming to increase customer profitability with any customer retention. This paper deals with the role of CRM in banking sector and the need for it is to increase customer value by using some analytical methods in CRM applications. It is a sound business strategy to identify the bank’s most profitable customers and prospects, and devotes time and attention to expanding account relationships with those customers through individualized marketing, pricing, discretionary decision making.

In banking sector, relationship management could be defined as having and acting upon deeper knowledge about the customer, ensure that the customer such as how to fund the customer, get to know the customer, keep in tough with the customer, ensure that the customer gets what he wishes from service provider and understand when they are not satisfied and might leave the service provider and act accordingly. Continue reading ‘CRM in banking’ »