Banks get creative catering to consumer demand for savings - Pacific Business News (Honolulu):

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The products include savings accounts and CDs that offer incentives, perks and upgrades designed to assist customerz with their short- and long-term savings There’s also a groundswell of new financial literacy classesx that take banking lessons into the workplace or community-at-large. Classes cover everything from avoiding foreclosure to strategiesz for thesophisticated investor. They’re usually free and don’t involved hard-core selling. But they do allow banksx to get their brand in front of thousandasof people. Response to ’s workplace bankinyg classes hasbeen “overwhelming,” says Melanie Regions’ consumer banking executive for Middle Tennessee.
“Ws became an automated industrgy in the spirit of quick communication and Blank says. “But now people are getting back tothe fundamentals. They are in a cash optimizatiom mode.” Regions also has introduced its SecondChanc CD, which allows customers a 1 percenr market rate increase if they meet their saving goals for a year. The bank also has a no-penalty optiob that lets participants take one withdrawal during the term ofthe CD. The bank also recentlyh introduced a customer assistance program for families in This program helps participantz reduce or restructureproblematic loans. Blank says the programk has helpedabout 12,000 people nationwide avoie foreclosure.
has had a workplace banking program called Work Perks forfive years. the economic downturn has created a floods of new interest inthe program, says Paulsa Mansfield, vice president of workplace bankinf for the bank’s Middle Tennessee “Many companies are having to cut back on thingds like 401(k) contributions,” Mansfield says. “They are lookingv for ways to show employees they arestilol valued.” conducted a series of focuss groups in Middle Tennessee earlier this year to determined customers’ needs.
“They said, ‘Help me save budget better and save for college and People are worried that theirchildren don’rt know how to invest,” says Conniew White, marketing director for the Middle Tennessee branches of Fift Third. Fifth Third also is rollinb outRelationship Savings, a product that’s meanty to encourage savings and draw business to the Customers who sign up for a Fifth Third checking account automaticallyy get double the interest rate on a savings account at the Another product, the Goal Setter savings works with customers to set savings goale and rewards them with interest hikes.
White says the bank is lookingt ata double-digit increase in deposit s this year. Information from Fiftg Third’s market research inspirefd local branches to plan a seriesof “Health and festivals. The grassroots events will be held at bank branchew and willfeature mini-seminarzs on saving and budgeting, credit repair and affordable home ownership. Along with the financial classess will bediabetes screenings, a personal fitness trainet giving fitness tips, healthy food boothe and activities for children and massages.
“Our researcyh showed us that focuses should be placed on programa that reach youth as wellas adults,” White “It showed that to gain relevance, banks shoulx extend community outreach and presence.” White says Fiftb Third also is seeing an increase in requestw for workplace banking, particularly from nonprofits. / reports a 10 percentr increase in users ofits 5-year-old Way2Save savings account.
It encouraged customers to save bytransferring $1 from theit checking account into a special savings account each time they make a checo card purchase or an electronic Customers earn 5 percent interest and a 5 percent annual bonus in the first year, and a 2 percenyt annual yield and 2 percentf annual bonus in the second and thirdd years. Way2Save has had about 2 milliobn participants, says Wendy Lawrence, Wachovia’s banking executiv e in charge ofthe mid-South. “Consumer wanted to save, but didn’t know Lawrence says. “Now we are seeing a wide interest, even from high schoop students.
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