Medinah Country Club, Medinah, Illinois
Originally uploaded by danperry.com
This morning’s New York Times article, Scrutiny of Bankers’ Perks Will Grow Too, raises another issue related to building consumer trust in your community bank.
The article points out, that in addition to salary caps for some banks receiving aid, President Obama has called for a review of executive perks for banks receiving bailout money.
The article also reveals it’s not just large banks that have over-indulged in compensation and perks for their executives, but mid-size and small banks as well. Again, the article’s focus is on banks participating in TARP.
If your bank is participating in TARP, the whole issue of executive perks at your bank will sooner or later catch up with you. It’s best to re-examine your policies now and ask, “If our perks were printed on the front page of the paper, how would we feel about it.” Or more importantly, “How would our community feel about it?”
As revealed in last week’s Edelman Trust Barometer 2009, only 36% of consumers trust banks. That’s not good.
Right now, bank consumers need transparency, information and community. And now is a golden opportunity for your community bank to rebuild trust with consumers by delivering on all of those points. If you are the first bank in your community to do so, I believe the rewards could be long lasting.
And I believe addressing the issue of bank executive perks head-on would be a smart place to start if your bank is participating in TARP. It may have once been an internal issue, but it’s now being made more public than ever.
If your bank has not had to seek bailout money, good for you. Now is the time to rebuild consumer trust by differentiating yourselves from the banks that do need bailout funding. The opportunity is there now. But if you wait too long, one of your competitors will beat you to the punch.
–Kevin McIntosh
Kevin McIntosh develops creative branding and social media strategies to help community banks differentiate from their competition.
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