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American BankerComing out of this crisis, banks are going to want to be as flexible as possible, with a nimble technology infrastructure that lets them respond quickly to every opportunity made available to them in the marketplace. Good luck with that. The complex maze of hardware and software lurking behind the curtain at the nation’s

American BankerNow especially, banks need to train and encourage their best employees if they want to increase their odds of retaining talent yet they aren’t doing it. Consultants and bankers contend the financial crisis has exposed the shallowness of many bank training programs. Since the 1990s, the banking industry has steadily cut back on training

Jim Bramlett, a managing director at the consulting firm Novantas LLC, described the industrywide move toward larger and more generous settlement offers so far as

With big names placing huge bets on major investment businesses-Bank of America buying Merrill and Wells Fargo snatching Wachovia from Citigroup-certain bank CEOs

For advisors whose brand is virtually the same, such as Wachovia and Wachovia Securities, rate-chasing savers may flee both at the same time, warns Rick Spitler, managing director at Novantas, a consultant in New York City.

Already cash-strapped banks anticipate declining revenue from credit

The free checking account as we know it is likely at the start of its death throes. This is according to Hank Israel, a director at Novantas, a consulting firm for the banking and credit card industry…

American BankerIt never hurts to have a backup plan. Federal lawmakers and regulators are threatening severe limits on how much banks may charge in overdraft fees, which heavily subsidize free checking. Bankers have already started developing makeover plans for the highly popular product in case overdraft revenues are reduced. Among the options are imposing new

The law’s impact,

One way credit card companies can afford to offer these lavish perks, incidentally, is that these premium cards have a significant higher interchange rate, says Jim Bramlett, a managing director at Novantas, a consulting firm for the banking and credit card industry.