FUTURE BANKING, a correspondent bank service marketing concept unveiled a year ago by Citibank of New York, is being marketed aggressively by the largest New York bank nationwide. Giving credence to the importance Citibank places on correspondent business, executive management of the bank spun off all of its correspondent relationships with banks and holding companies of under $300 million into a new corporate subsidiary, Correspondent Resources, Inc.

Headed by Alan Weber, president, and Don Winkler, vice president and national business manager, a new nationwide organization structured in a totally different way from Citibank's traditional correspondent department lines was formed. At a June meeting in Minneapolis attended by 38 invited bankers, Mr. Winkler explained how the new structure came into being:

Analyzing the Need

"We studied the correspondents on our books and found 1,600 banks with $300 million assets or less who merely had a 'relationship' with us. With all of the competition hitting both large and small banks in our traditional way of doing business, we knew that bankers must plan for the future. So, our staff undertook to collate all the diverse pieces of present day banking services and potential banking services into a unified service - with cost/pricing designed to return a fair profit.

"Three pieces of the puzzle from our bank that we felt were not being properly utilized by banks under $300 million in size were - knowledge, technology and management. We identified the needs of independent correspondent banks and we help put the puzzle together in a program called Future Banking. C.R.I. now markets 75 correspondent bank services, as well as the programs designed to implement them."

Forming the Plan

In personalizing this service through C.R.I. for community-size banks, Mr. Winkler said, staff members form a customer plan to identify the bank's primary needs, then the secondary needs.

Primary needs are identified as:

1. Image requirement.
2. Customer service goals.
3. Profit needs.

Secondary needs are met with:

1. Fee/deposit growth program.
2. Operations/productivity program.
3. Funding/investment program.
4. Staff management program.

Mr. Winkler explained three steps undertaken by C. R .I. staff members to accomplish the above:

"The first is to understand and analyze your needs.

"The second is to create offerings to meet your needs.

"The third is to provide capabilities to implement the plan over the long term."

Implementation

As described by Mr. Winkler, Future Banking thus consists of four basic programs noted above as secondary needs. After C.R.I. staff identifies the primary needs, the programs to implement those needs are reviewed with the individual bank in three parts. Using the Operations/Productivity program as an example, C.R.I. would first review the opportunity needs profile, which might involve strategic planning, systems planning, operations/productivity planning. C.R.I. staff then would review what it could offer as a solution to those needs and, in this case, it would be computer services. The third step would be to identify applicable C.R.I. program support capabilities. These would be the availability of Citicorp operations specialists, New York processing services, and educational courses. The profitability of the program is reviewed by looking at potential revenue and identified expenses.

To make its new Future Banking services available on a level closer to its potential bank correspondents, C. R .I. has opened several regional offices. One of these is located in the Twin Cities at 5200 West 73rd Street in suburban Edina, Minn. Joseph McChristian is vice president and regional business manager, who hosted the Minneapolis meeting for the 38 guest bankers. Two veteran bankers working with him to cover the states of Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming are James Schmitz and James Laird, both assistant vice presidents.

C.R.I. support staff from New York reviewed in depth each of the four program offerings.

Mr. Winkler told the visitors that 117 banks to date in mid-June had signed up with C.R.I. for the Future Banking program. A group of 175 independent banks in Michigan requested a meeting with Correspondent Resources executives to explain the service to enable them to compete better with larger banks and multi-bank holding companies in their state. As a result, those Michigan banks have formed a new organization for their marketing purposes called Future Banking Association of Michigan. Similar discussions now have been held in California and several other locations, Mr. Winkler stated.

Reprinted with permission from NFR Communications, Inc., Minneapolis, MN.