Bank Employee Incentives vs. Mr. Public Consumer

Banks rank their divisions, branches and employees as with every industry. Which branch is profiting. Which are losing? Which sell the most products/services? Which ones have the biggest increases/declines in each week, month, quarter, annually, etc. It’s broken down by state, city, branch and even employee.

Yes, many banks pay bonuses or commissions on services/products your teller cross-sells to you at your bank. If they hear you are going on a trip, they are rewarded when you purchase your travelers checks. Credit card applications can pay $30 to an employee. Refer a large depositor to purchase a CD and another $50. Many banks use the SIIM program provided by BVSinc.com. This software boasts it can increase fee income and offers employee/customer interaction tracking to assist in employee incentive programs. Clark Consulting offers something similar.

Harte-Hanks applied its Allink Daily Deposit Builder — which comes with a package of 80 pre-built business rules based on customer activity — to the data at Fifth Third Bank. By analyzing what customers did weeks (and sometimes months) before they closed their accounts, Fifth Third was able to “teach” the program to recognize potential defection behavior, often 60 days in advance.

“Daily Deposit Builder also allowed Fifth Third to identify customers prime for additional products. Its “opportunity” program focuses on selling to those customers who appear likely to become more profitable, based on either demographics or increased account activity.” says writer Richard Levey of Direct Magazine. His interview with Andrew Rosen, vice president and deposit product manager of Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati, Ohio can be found at http://www.directmag.com/mag/marketing_sos_yields/.

Fifth Third Bank measures teller performance on an individual basis. But the Cincinnati-based bank pays a set commission for each product or service sold.

For example, a successful mortgage application reaps the referring teller $30, and a customer credit card application pays $25, said Bob Slaven, Fifth Third vice president and northeast Indiana retail regional manager stated in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette written by Sherry Slater.

Full time tellers are expected to accrue at least $150 in commissions each month. Part-time tellers have a $75 goal. They start each month with a clean slate.

"It's very attainable," Slaven said.

Fifth Third employees, who receive bonuses on a quarterly basis, are paid the amount they earn, even if it falls below the performance standard. And there's no cap on the upper end. Some tellers earn more than $1,000 a month merely from commissions, Slaven said.

In March 2003, Fifth Third Bancorp reached an agreement with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions to change its internal accounting practices. In November 2002, regulators began reviewing Fifth Third that forced the company to take $54 million charge in the third quarter of FY 2002. The regulatory oversight ended in March 2004.

What about overdraft protection services? Are bank employees rewarded for each Overdraft Protection application customers fill out? What about the much talked about “courtesy bounce protection” programs? Are branch managers rewarded for increased fee income? Who is auditing Fee Income at our nation’s banks?

Debbie Hagan

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