Platform Payoff

Licensed retail bankers can boost your brokerage programs' profitability.

Sun National Bank's first effort to sell insurance and investments through its platform banker staff was a humbling experience. Four years ago, the Vineland, N.J., bank decided to put a licensed banker in each of its 62 branches. In hindsight, managers should have considered whether it had 62 bankers who actually fit the mold, says Edward Malandro, Sun National's executive vice president of consumer banking.

Bankers traditionally have a customer service rather than a sales mind-set, and that was the case with many of those Sun National trained and licensed. "We forced people into this role," says Malandro. "We paid all the expenses, but we weren't seeing any sales..."

BIC: Platform Payoff