On the heels of Bank of America’s cancellation of its $5 monthly debit card fee, Rockland Trust says it’s taking steps to upgrade its infrastructure in order to please the droves of new customers defecting from BofA.
Jane Lundquist, executive vice president of retail banking, business banking and residential lending at Rockland Trust, said a turn toward local institutions began well in advance of the $5 fee.
"Even early in the year, we were seeing an increase in customers," she told Banker & Tradesman. So far this year, Rockland has "almost doubled" new account openings compared to 2010, Lundquist said.
Rockland wouldn’t release specific, official numbers and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. only releases such data at the end of the fiscal year in June.
Still, Lundquist said the $5 debit card fee was simply one more aggravation heaped onto the pile shoveled upon customers by large banks.
"It’s not just the debit card fee. There are fees for hard copies of checks, fees for paper statements. The economy’s been tough and for a lot of customers and businesses, when you see fees, you’re looking for ways to save," Lundquist said. "We benefitted quite a bit from that."
That’s not to say it was automatic. "Everybody wants convenience," Lundquist said. And with great resources at its fingertips, Bank of America was able to offer the latest make-it-easy technology to customers.
When customers switch away from a large bank, they bring expectations. They begin to think maybe it wasn’t all bad over there at the big bank, with its slick multi-functional ATMs, online banking and other streamlined technology.
The responsibility of meeting these demands is not lost on local banks that have so far benefited from the defections. Rockland has invested "a lot of time and money" in order to meet heightened service expectations, Lundquist said.
Rockland’s success at attracting former big-bank customers has been echoed in the credit union industry, too.
Credit union industry advocate Credit Union National Association (CUNA) said recently that credit unions nationwide had signed 650,000 new members since Bank of America announced the controversial $5 fee.
According to CUNA spokesman Darryl Tait, the average member growth per month for credit unions between January and September was 80,000.
Savings and share growth from existing accounts averaged about $4.5 billion per month in the first nine months of the year and $4.5 billion from new accounts in the months since Bank of America announced the fee, Tait said.
