The Shopper Stopper.
Banks are inundated daily by people telephoning for information about services and products. Surprisingly,] few banks bother to develop a comprehensive program for converting these 'shopper' contacts into actual sates. Here's a simple, effective way to get started. Every day, telephone calls from so-called "shoppers"...

U.S. bank merger activity slows slightly. (Figuratively Speaking).
Number of banks that merged in the U.S. in 1998, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.: 680 Number of bank mergers that took place in 1999: 513 Number of bank mergers that took place in 2000: 499 Source: American Banker's Association, http://www.aba.com/Consumer+Connection/CNC_faqs.htm...

BUSINESS BEAT.
Byline: The Register-Guard People Travis Kincher has joined the information security department at InfoGroup Northwest in Eugene. He was previously with Hollywood Entertainment. Judy Betts has joined New Horizons In-Home Care in Eugene as human resources director. With more than 10 years of...

Fitch likely to sustain BB rating for Philippine bonds.
CEBU CITYFinancial firm and wealth manager UBS said the worst is over as far as credit rating downgrades are concerned, saying there is a good possibility that the next credit scoring by Fitch Ratings will not be as harsh as Moodys Investor Services, which cut the countrys sovereign credit...

BSP okays CBC-Manila bank merger.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has approved the merger of China Banking Corp. of the Sy group and Manila Bank, a Puyat-owned thrift bank. BSP Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said the Monetary Board okayed the merger last week. "(The purpose is that) Chinabank will...

Large bank utilizes CBT in making transition to new computer system.
Large Bank Utilizes CBT In Making Transition to New Computer System Converting to a new computer system--with a different vendor, operating system and functionality--could have been a major upheaval for San Francisco-based 1st Nationwide Bank. End-user interfaces changed, computer presentation screens looked different, and bank employees had to...

Customers receive rewards for ordinary banking relationships through a new MasterCard program.
A new type of incentive program that allows banks to reward their customers for all of their ordinary banking relationships has been rolled out by MasterCardWorldwide. The rewards program enables banks to build loyalty programs unique to their own brands and to cross-sell retail bank and credit...

ABA updates sales and marketing books, courses.
ABA has updated eight of its instruction books (intended for either classroom or in-bank instruction) that might be of interest to marketing or sales personnel. Relevant material is also available as an online self-paced course. Below is a list of titles and brief description of each: "Calling...

Feeling insecure.
You'll excuse me if I tell you that lately I've been feeling a little queasy about risk securitization, the act of distributing risk by aggregating debt instruments into a pool and then issuing new securities backed by the pool. There's nothing inherently wrong with it. The capital...

BUSINESS BEAT.
Byline: The Register-Guard People Pacific Continental Bank in Eugene has hired Stacy Lewey as a consumer banking officer at the West 11th Avenue office The bank has promoted James Atwood to vice president and Mary Fechtel to special credits officer. Atwood is a...