Consumer Banking Bill of Rights

I mentioned last week that I would write about the effect of innovation and technology on green banking but with all that is occurring in the economy and financial industry, another subject became priority for the week...Consumer Banking Bill of Rights. Many industries from real estate to electric energy have consumer bill of rights in effect. With all the instability in the financial industry right now, you have to ask yourself...What about banking consumers? Are you doing what you can, as a bank, credit union or financial planner, to protect them? Do you provide them with all the information they need to make the best educated financial decisions?

Banking customers should expect their financial institutions to sell them the correct products and services. Financial institutions should insure consumers are well informed when seeking and using their products or services. Whether this be informing them of all products and services offered, clear expectations and disclosing all costs with each of these products or taking it a step further in offering assistance to them in choosing the best products and services for them, taking into account their current debt, assets and income at the least. As a financial professional, you should treat your customers with courtesy and respect and take the time to explain all service options and all follow-up services that may be required, making sure to protect them against consequences that will negatively impact them. If they have too much credit card debt and can barely make minimum payments, come up with a solution to help get out of this hole because the likelihood is that they do not know how to do it alone.

uMonitor has many solutions that can help offer better products and services to your customers. uOpen & uFund^® , for example, provides a way for financial institutions to offer the customer a way to research different products and services that fits their specific needs, all with clear descriptions and disclosures. Financial institutions can protect their customers from fraud with automated ID verification and authentication occurring in real time. There are cross sell and up sell capabilities that use decisioning rules and consumer credit scores to offer customers specific products and services, such as an automobile loan for a lower rate or a 0% balance transfer credit card. By allowing customers to research and purchase products and services easier, you are helping them make better decisions.

For financial relationship managers and advisors that provide financial services to mass, affluent and high net worth clients, uAdvise^® offers a way to easily view all of their clients information in one place and provides a way to exchange information and documents. This allows for faster responsiveness to their client's needs with real time updates, enabling the advisor to offer the best advice and service.