Banks Get Cozy, Boost Local Services

Banks Get Cozy, Boost Local Services

By SHELLY GARCIA



Senior Reporter

Used to be a walk inside the bank branch got you a 20-minute wait for a cold stare from an anonymous teller who might just send you packing after reciting the rules about transactions that can only be conducted at your home branch.






But anyone bypassing the ATM machine for a visit behind the doors of a bank branch these days is more likely to get a warm hello, a cup of joe and a conversation that takes place face-to-face no shouting through bullet-proof glass required.






The disappearance of community Banks, stock market declines over the past several years, the bust in the business economy coupled with a boom in consumer spending has sent most Banks running straight for the retail customer, a segment that many had shunned since the 1990s when the nation’s largest banks beat a frenzied path to automate their retail banking services.






“It’s the reversal of a trend where banks were focusing on technology so customers don’t have to come into the branch,” said Tracey Mills, a spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association, a Washington, D.C.,based trade group. “Community banks have always been really good at the customer service thing and getting to know their customers, and larger banks are noticing customers respond to that, so they’re competing by putting banks in communities and trying to focus on customer service.”






In the San Fernando Valley, where there are less than a handful of independent community banks remaining, some of the largest players in the banking industry have opened new branches, remodeled old ones and added staff in an effort to attract retail customers.












A new look






“We’ve remodeled 80 percent of our branches in the San Fernando Valley, but we have also upgraded the quality and caliber of our team members,” said Vince Liuzzi, president of community banking in the San Fernando Valley for Wells Fargo Bank. “We have determined our customers want to bank when, where and how they want. So in response we have put business bankers, financial planners licensed insurance representatives in the branches.”






Wells Fargo, which operates 27 branches within its Valley division, which stretches from Toluca Lake to Calabasas and up to the 118 Freeway, is set to open two new branches in the area within the coming year, in part because the company has added to its staff here by about 30 percent.






Washington Mutual, which last month announced that it would add about 250 new branches across the country this year, is also expanding in the local area, although the company could not break out the number of new branches it planned in the Valley as yet.






WaMu has opened 56 branches in the greater San Fernando Valley, an area that also includes the Simi, Conejo, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys, since it entered the California market in 1996.






“In the late 1990s we took a really hard look at how the branch bank services the needs of our customer base, and we saw a lot of banks were pushing customers into less costly means of servicing,” said Kendall Bateman, senior vice president for planning and franchise development for WaMu. “What we found was that our customers want to do business with friendly, competent people in a comfortable environment. Based on that, we began our expansion into a number of different markets.”






The consolidations of the 1990s helped banks to locate branches in local communities throughout the country. But as the merger frenzy subsided there were 239 deals last year compared to 504 M