Apple Advertising got its start as a bank advertising firm back in 1971, mentored by the late Jack Westall, President of Asheville Savings and Loan Association.  Our roots are deep in the banking industry. We have lived through a lot of industry turmoil and progress, stagnation and growth in those intervening 39 years.

One of the banking industry’s more active associations, the NC Bankers Association (NCBA) conducts the country’s oldest state association banking school. Held every August in Chapel Hill, the school is a four-year course of instruction, grooming ‘up-and-comers’ to take their place in the economy’s most vital industry, the banking sector. North Carolina is a solid financial center due largely to the first-class education many of its bankers have received at NC Bankers’ School of Banking.

Apple Advertising has always been a strong supporter of the banking industry in general and the NC Bankers in particular. This year we continued to put our money where our mouth is and enrolled Zack Self in the school as a freshman to attend the week course during August 8-13, 2010. We’re happy to report that he applied himself, studied hard and passed the final exam.  That means he can return to Chapel Hill next August as a sophomore.

Congratulations to Zack and the 180 or more students and graduates of the 2010 NC School of Banking. We wish all of you the very best.

The banking industry needs all the bright minds it can get.

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Bank Operations & Compliance by George Self
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If the Fed has its way, your NSF income will disappear.  But, you can fight back — and win — if you get organized.  First things first: get the answers to four questions: (more…)

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Bank Operations & Compliance by George Self
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There’s a great opportunity to help hundreds of people in your market.  Some of them are likely your customers. What’s that?  Head off a mortgage loan scam in your market.

People who prey on the  uninformed are vile. There’s a simple, cheap way your bank can help: allocate prominent space on your website home page to (1) warn about mortgage loan scams, (2) link to a page where you clearly outline the dangers, (3) make available an email address and phone number to give more information, and finally, (4) link to government sites like the FDIC, FTC and similar pages where more help can be found. What an OUTSTANDING way to help customers, help yourself, and not spend very much money.

Once you’ve got your web page together, perhaps you could tweet your customers (and the media) every time you update the information. Make sure you let customers know about your page with statement notices and across the teller line hand outs – things you’re already doing, right?

Remember, it doesn’t always take a ‘grand gesture’ to do your customers some good. Often times, little things count just as much.

Here are some links to get you (or your compliance people) thinking:

Featured Articles from the FTC:http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/articles/naps03.pdf

FDIC Tips on Avoiding Mortgage Foreclosure Scams: http://www.fdic.gov/consumers/loans/prevention/rescue/watch.html

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Bank Operations & Compliance, Public Relations by George Self
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Chalk one up for the good guys.

In the May 2009 issue of the FINCEN “SAR ACTIVITY REVIEW” (see link for entire story below), it appears that a bank’s BSA/AML geeks tripped up the bad guys and helped send them to jail.

The geeks dutifully noticed a business checking customer who appeared to be engaging in activity inconsistent with the customer’s business profile. As a result of the subsequent SAR filing, the bad guys went to jail and at least some of the defrauded consumers got some restitution.

Hooray for the Compliance Geeks!

I live in the compliance world. I well understand that compliance people don’t jump to mind when the word “hero” comes up. And, I have read enough stories about selfish, greedy bankers.

So, it’s nice to read about a bank (and its compliance geeks) who rescued who-knows-how-many customers from a serious, potentially heart-wrenching, life-arresting loss. My hat’s off to the these guys. Kudos! Bravo! Keep up the good work.

Amen.

Read on for the complete story.

(more…)

Filed under: Bank Operations & Compliance by George Self
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If Swine Flu hits hard, you need to find a way to do business that doesn’t require customers to visit the bank.

For those of you who are golfers, can you remember the last time you were way out on the back nine, when the wind kicked up and lightning began to sparkle between you and the locker room? You’re torn, right? You’d like to finish the round, but, upon reflection, you’d also like to avoid direct experience with lightning strike.

Tell you what, if you’re smart, when the skies get dark, the wind picks up and the thunder rumbles, you start looking around for cover. Maybe you won’t quit the round at the first rumble, but you will start thinking about your “plan B”.

So, if you’re running a bank, consider this:

The H1N1 virus is darkening your skies and it could be a major-big deal.  After all, think about it: schools close, day care closes and, on top of all that, a fourth of your staff is sick — and it all drags on for weeks?  It’s enough to keep you up at night.

Take another look at opening accounts online.

Anything you can do to keep customers happy, but out of the bank, will be a plus.  Your internet bill pay is a good thing.  So is Cash Management and Remote Deposit Capture.  And, if you have been delaying offering internet account opening programs, now is the time take another look.  It’s not hard to do.  The compliance problems are solved, and the costs are affordable: you can be up and running with Online Account Opening for less than $13,000.  (Click here to get details, including costs.)

What should you do about the H1N1 threat?

Start planning NOW. Plan on increased ATM use. Start talking to your employees about your “if-sick-don’t-come” policy and think about how you’re going to handle employee issues that arise when schools are closed for a month or more. You’ll need to have a plan you can roll out quickly, one you have rehearsed and know works.

To get a look at the dimensions of the problem, read this article that appeared in the August 3, 2009 Issue of Bank Information Security com.

Filed under: Bank Marketing & Advertising, Bank Operations & Compliance by George Self
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If you want a preview of what the upcoming 2009 S&S exams will be like, you have only to read this article from the March 18, 2009 AMBANKER (included below).   Each regulator is going to be working hard to show they are “remediating” their alleged lack of oversight to the quality of an institution’s risk assessments.

This is a clear case of “forewarned is forearmed”.    More than ever, it’s all about Risk Assessment and Risk Testing.

In everything you do, be thinking how you can demonstrate the quality of your Risk Assessments, and what you are doing to deal with identified risks.  (If you are into Remote Deposit Capture, be sure your RA is for real, not just boilerplate.)

GAO: Regulators Knew of Risks, But Failed to Act Before Crisis

American Banker | Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By Stephen Sloan

WASHINGTON – Well before the financial crisis materialized, federal regulators identified risk management weaknesses at financial institutions but did not demand improvements, the Government Accountability Office will tell a Senate panel today.

While regulators recognized that bank executives were underestimating risks and relying on weak models and stress tests, GAO said they were blinded by a belief that banks were well capitalized.

“Regulators told us that despite these identified weaknesses, they did not take forceful action – such as changing their assessments – until the crisis occurred because the institutions reported a strong financial position and senior management had presented the regulators with plans for change,” Orice Williams, the GAO’s director of financial markets and community investment, said in prepared testimony. “Regulators acknowledged that in some cases they had not fully appreciated the extent of these weaknesses until the financial crisis occurred and risk management systems were tested by events.”

Williams will testify this afternoon at a Senate Banking subcommittee hearing on regulators’ oversight of risk management. She will be joined by regulators from the Office of Thrift Supervision, Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The GAO’s report does not name the institutions involved in their review or the agencies that conducted the examinations in question. But several examples included in the report symbolize fundamental weaknesses in risk management.

In one case, a regulator told an institution’s board of directors in 2006 that an examination found senior management was not adequately overseeing risk management, financial reporting and internal audits.

“We found that the regulator continued to find some of the same weaknesses in subsequent examination reports, yet examiners did not take forceful action to require the institution to address these shortcomings,” Williams said in her testimony. “When asked about the regulator’s assessment of the holding company in general and risk management in particular given the identified weaknesses, examiners told us that they had concluded that the institution’s conditions were adequate, in part because it was deemed to have sufficient capital and the ability to raise more.”

That assumption, of course, later proved false for many financial institutions when credit markets began to freeze in mid-2007.

In another example, regulators wrote a letter to senior management of an institution in 2005 seeking resolution to a number of problems, including lax enterprise-wide risk management, scant definitions of risk types and weak policies on handling new products. The GAO noted the institution still received a satisfactory exam rating “because senior management reported that they planned to address these weaknesses.”

Regulators also admitted to relying too heavily on an institution’s assessment of its own risk. One examiner relied on a manager’s review of risk from subprime mortgages which, the GAO said were based on a “lack of historical losses.”

Filed under: Bank Operations & Compliance, Risk Assessment by George Self
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