PRI Blog

Our blog is dedicated to sharing our thoughts and expertise about the banking industry and how you can experience quantifiable results for your financial institution. We invite you to hear the perspectives from our banking professionals through our posts.

Unlocking Customer Engagement: Strategies for Enhanced Experiences

You’ve done the hard work of acquiring a customer, and now you want to deepen the relationship. Customer Engagement is the process – or journey – that can result in increased loyalty, advocacy, and customer lifetime value. But how does a financial institution go about attacking the Customer Engagement challenge? While there is no simple or comprehensive list of strategies, Tom McGill, PRI Director of Customer Experience, tackles a few topics to consider that can be effective as you move down the engagement path.
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Do Banks Need Surcharge-free Networks?

Twenty years ago, when cash was still a primary payment method, surcharge-free ATM access was an important competitive tool for smaller FIs including community banks and credit unions. Consumers were generally using cash for most small ticket purchases, sensitive to ATM-related fees and often chose their banking relationship based upon this kind of access. But times have certainly changed! Fast forward to current day, and the importance of ATM access has declined substantially. There has been a steep decline in the number of ATM cash withdrawals in recent years and in cash share of consumer payments with the rise of mobile payments, online shopping, cash back at point of sale and the increased use of debit and credit cards. Consumers have reduced need and desire to pay with cash, which means the surcharge-free offering may no longer be strictly necessary to attract and retain them.
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PRI Annual Team Meeting Focuses on Storytelling and New Technology

The PRI team gathered in historic Nashville, Tenn., for our annual meeting in October. Being in “Music City,” we were able to experience all it had to offer, while coming together to review the vision of PRI and discuss trends and changes coming to the financial industry. PRI founder Tim Holt kicked off the meeting […]
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What is Interchange Income and How Do You Calculate It?

Mike Holt, PRI partner, discusses interchange income and how it’s calculated in this week’s blog. The History of Interchange Income Simply put, interchange is the small percentage of each credit card and debit card purchase amount that is paid to financial institutions by merchants for the privilege and convenience of accepting payments via the FI-issued […]
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Why Intentional Process Improvement Matters 

Intentional process improvement and how it applies to the strategy and culture of a financial institution is not always at the forefront of senior leaders’ minds. When it’s not, it can easily fall by the wayside. Sometimes FIs subscribe to the view, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This perspective can lead to a […]
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PeoplesBank: The Power of Preparing for Growth

Mergers and acquisitions in the banking industry continue to take place at a rapid pace and provide a foundation for strong growth for financial institutions. M&A can be a complicated long-term process, and it requires consideration of many elements beyond just converting a system platform, as PRI points out in the article M&A Integration: It’s […]
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The Dos and Don’ts of Contract Negotiation

The Dos and Don’ts of Contract Negotiation Contracts for essential services lie at the heart of a financial institution’s business and greatly impact what it can and cannot do and what it offers to its customers. Because these contracts in large part drive the FI’s business, it’s important to get the contract negotiation right. Any […]
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Loan Pricing: How to Increase Profitability/ROE in an Increasing Rate Environment

As of April 2023, the yield curve was inverted, pointing to a possible recession. Rates have dramatically increased, slowing loan demand, and inflation stubbornly hangs on indicating more rate increases could be on the way in the short-term. Customer demand has shifted the conversation from rate floors to rate ceilings. In addition, excess liquidity that resulted from the pandemic is now falling. This, combined with depositor demand for higher yields, is beginning to increase deposit costs. In this blog, PRI consultant Shawn King discusses how to maximize profitability and ROE in an increasing rate environment.
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Breaking the Mold: Using New Channels to Communicate Effectively

At PRI, we spend our days helping financial institutions look at every aspect of their businesses to determine where they can improve their processes, which leads to enhanced culture and employee engagement. There are many avenues of attack we can take that lead to improved efficiency and increased profitability, which is our ultimate goal. As […]
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