Banks Get Innovative to Boost Walletshare

For banks these days, it’s about showing customers the love, and not showing them the money.

Fewer banks are using higher interest rates as a means of attracting new business, according to Market Rates Insight, a research firm. Instead, financial institutions are using relationship-based products as a means of increasing walletshare.

The average yield on a short-term CD is about 1.85%, according to MRI. But the yield on a “relationship” CD, available to customers that have other products at their banks, is 2.15%.

Banks have also been slower to pass on the reduced rates on their cost of funds to customers. Banks have passed along about 191 basis points in savings on CDs to their customers during the Federal Reserve Board’s most recent string of rate cuts, compared with 248 basis points during a similar stretch in 2000-2001, according to MRI.

Innovations are also taking place in the areas of competitor research and pricing, according to MRI.