Bank executive briefs staff on business goals
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I'd like to focus a little bit on the year ahead. Starting in January, we will place increased emphasis on retaining customer deposits. We will be raising the rates on our certificates of deposits from 3 percent to 3.5 percent, and offering customers incentives, including free ipods, for opening new checking accounts with direct deposits. This is in response to the aggressive push by online depositories and credit unions, which are enticing customers with higher interest rates. This is squeezing our interest margin and decreasing our profitability. We can't lend money that we don't have, right? At the same time, we will be switching the title of "loan officers" to "relationship officers." A large part of their job now will be to recruit, and retain, new deposits.
