If I read ‘managing for growth’ one more time, I will vomit.  With that out of the way, I did the 2 minutes per deck review of the banks presentations, ignoring the CAGR projections, which are all highly positive, and of course the investors want to see that, so the Banks give them that.

No…..  I looked for hooks;  strategic levers that could/ should catch the jaded investing community, and would suggest signals that the Bank gets it, and is trying to outpace the pack.

Here are my findings, with conclusions to follow:

Wachovia

• customer service (#1, except they omitted US Bank who actually were #1)
• Growth strategies
• distribution focus

US Bank

• customer service #1 (ignored Wachovia)
• invest in the future
• acquisitions

WAMU

• free checking drives household growth
• leading share in multi family markets

Bank of America

• selling more to more customers
• cost control
• execution and organic growth
• strong franchise
• information based innovation
• #1 in payments
• relationship decision engine across product lines

Wells Fargo

• unique
• strong cross sell
• sales per FTE
• sales growth
• customer, customer, customer loud and clear
• strong distribution #1 in most
• #1 in online banking
• online product sales
• investing in ATM’s
• renewal programme for branches (7 year cycle), and for new branches
• adding FTE
• Focus:
  • Add to existing businesses that meet our financial and
    cultural compatibility criteria
  • For banking, in-footprint and fill-in
  • Distribution, not product
  • Skills, not scale
  •  Manageable integration
• 

Relevance to Bankwatch:

This is a completely subjective review.  First of all, they are all guilty of using words like “manage for growth” and other forward looking, stay the course, positive statements. 

The clear winner is Wells.  Some gems show through there, with a clear focus on customers, and employees, and an actual picture!  It is backed up with stats on sales per FTE, sales online, distribution, not product.  These are the kinds of things that set them apart from the others.

Bank of America comes second – clearly #1, but not sitting back.  Clear focus on decision engine across all products and customers to drive growth.

Biggest disappointment – Wamu.  I think / thought they were doing better than this deck suggested.

The others – change the name, and they are all the same.

How hard is it to produce a clear, focussed deck with objective points supported by data.  Where has the clear thinking gone!