As seen in the accompanying chart, there is a wide spread between various agentsâ card performance, in terms of numbers of new credit card accounts generated per branch, per month and per year.
In the â2009 R.K. Hammer Agent Bank Card Performance Modelâ there are again 3 bank card performance categories:
âWeak Performers,â and âMedium Performers,â and âBest-in-Classâ.
2009 Weak Performers (bottom 35% of All Agent Bank card programs) are characterized by:
Only 72-84 or less new accounts per year per Branch (or 6-7 new accounts per month per branch);
No card sales incentives for the retail branch sales staff;
Limited new card account/activation performance reporting at the employee/branch level;
Emphasis on other branch retail product sales viewed by employees as a higher priority.
2009 Medium Performers (middle 50% of all Agent Bank card programs) are characterized by:
108-120 new accounts per year per Branch (or 9-10 new accounts per month per branch);
Some incentives for branch personnel, but distribution often discretionary by the branch manager;
Better new card account/activation reporting down to the employee level, not less than quarterly;
Continuing emphasis on new card account sales by branch sales staff.
2009 âBest-in-Classâ Performers (top 15% of all Agent Bank card programs) are characterized by:
144-168 or more new accounts per year per Branch (or 12-14+ new accounts per month per branch);
Wide variety of cash, gift, and trip incentives, changed regularly; staff-designed and implemented;
Not only excellent reporting, monthly, but used routinely as a management/training tool with staff;
Continuous training and retraining, not only on its own products/pricing, but on competitors as well;
Major focus on âaggressive activationâ of new card accounts, not just generating new account numbers.
More about R.K. HAMMER
R.K. HAMMER is a consumer credit card industry analyst/investment banker with over 25 years in the card business, including running over 800 nation-wide agent credit card programs, as well as being a leading broker of agent bank and credit card portfolio sales, and as an expert witness for card issuers in litigation. R.K. Hammer is a leading innovator in due diligence portfolio valuation techniques, and has trained over 1,000 card executives and others from 50 countries in best practices credit card portfolio management and financial valuation of consumer and commercial payment enterprises.
This is the sixth part of the R.K. Hammer annual seven-part series of year-end bank card metrics: card portfolio sales, prices and volumes; credit card ROA%; fee income/penalty fee income; bank fees vs. card fees; credit card industry P/L; and agent card program performance.
