Bancography, a financial services consulting firm, today announced that its Bancology Summer 2024 Newsletter is now available for immediate download here. In its 23rd year of providing key industry insights, this edition contains extensive research about the banking industry and informative market research data from Bancography President, Steve Reider, and Founding Principal, Director of Market Research, Kimberly Clay.

Reider said, “Bancography’s vision is to provide tools and resources that enable financial institutions to optimize their branch networks and measure the effectiveness of their customer experience and brand awareness programs. We hope that everyone who downloads the Bancology Summer 2024 Newsletter will find a bit of information that is relevant for them.”

The four main themes in this edition include:

Defying the Trends: Where Branch Counts Remain Steady (or even growing)

While digital channels have reshaped the banking landscape, the impact on branches is more complex. Despite the predictions, many markets are defying the trends, with branch counts remaining steady or even growing in cities like Austin, Dallas and Charlotte.

Retail Branch Benchmarks

There continued to be a decline of in-person transactions at the branch. For bank branches, average transactions decreased by 37% from 2018 levels, and credit union branches experienced an even greater decline of more than 50% in that timeframe.

Loyalty by Age – Branch versus Digital Transactors

Looking at customers who visited branches in the last three months versus those who conducted business via digital channels – how likely are they to recommend their institution.

The Efficiency Ratio, and How Much Scale Matters

Calculated as noninterest expense divided by the sum of net interest margin plus noninterest revenue, the efficiency ratio frames performance in an answer to a simple question: how many cents in expense does it take us to generate a dollar in revenue?

“Every edition of the Bancology Newsletter hits on salient points that make you stop and think,” Clay shared. “I found the ‘Loyalty by Age’ section particularly interesting, as it yields some valuable insights into overall branch loyalty that may be overlooked or misinterpreted.”

Download a copy of the Bancology Summer 2024 Newsletter here.

About Bancography

Bancography provides branch planning solutions and primary marketing research for financial institutions across the U.S. Bancography offers custom branch network optimization services in addition to Bancography Plan, our market analysis and branch planning software tool. Bancography’s Branch Network Optimization service provides a market-wide assessment of any region to deliver a long-term plan for branch openings, closings, relocations and acquisitions. Our branch planning projects have addressed nearly every region in the U.S. In support of our clients’ current operations, Bancography performs primary marketing research to measure customer experience and brand awareness.

For more information, visit bancography.com, connect with us on LinkedIn or contact info@bancography.com.

Anna Stanley/Laura Lenz anna@williammills.com / laura@williammills.com 251.517.7857 / 678.781.7226