The Federal Reserve Board of the USA has amended the so-called “Regulation E” to prohibit financial services institutions from charging overdraft protection fees for ATM withdrawals and one-time point-of-sale debit card transactions unless the customer has opted in to overdraft coverage. For the uninitiated, overdraft protection fees are the US$ 25-35 charges levied by banks on an average for allowing transactions made by their customers to go through despite not having sufficient balance in their accounts. For more on this topic, click here and here.
An independent survey recently reflected that, unless banks reach out and proactively communicate the cost-benefit proposition of overdraft protection to their customers, over 80% of their customers will not opt in for it. With over US$ 7 billion in revenues at stake http://www.eta-i.org/ambien.html from overdraft protection fees, it’s not surprising that FSIs are aggressively seeking customer opt-in agreements.
For BPOs having expertise in retail banking and the experience of working with the US financial services industry, overdraft protection opt-in presents a huge opportunity to expand their footprint within existing accounts, penetrate new accounts and grow revenues. They can partner with FSIs to design, develop and execute campaigns to boost overdraft opt-ins. Since most campaigns will be centered around outbound telephone calls to retail banking customers, this opportunity is ideally led by BPO companies. For the messaging, content, web advertising, microsites and other integral parts of these campaigns, BPOs can partner with marketing agencies, website design and development firms and IT solutions providers.
First comment posted using DISQUS.
Update dated 21-Apr-2012:
Two years later, it looks like banks have done a good job of reaching out to their customers and proactively communicating the cost-benefit proposition of overdraft protection to them: Their income from overdraft protection fees has dropped only slightly from US$ 33.1B in 2010 to US$ 31.6B in 2011. It looks like the reduction is partly cushioned by an increase in average fee from US$ 28 in 2010 to US$ 35 at present. (Source: Moebs Services).