The proverbial grass is still green at Bank of Nova Scotia. That’s the consensus among Scotiabank account managers whose ratings this year earned the bank a top spot in Investment Executive’s annual Account Managers’ Report Card. It is Scotiabank’s second consecutive year at the top.
“I’ve worked at other banks for 15 years, and the difference is night and day,” says one Scotiabanker from Alberta. “I know where the grass is greener.”
It’s one of many glowing endorsements of Scotiabank, which finished with an average overall score of 8.5, narrowly edging out its closest rival, Royal Bank of Canada, by 0.3 of a point. Scotiabank’s scores were on the rise in 10 categories this year, including higher marks for sales support and branch managers.
Overall, however, the 2004 Report Card offers few surprises. Ratings at the big banks are neither soaring nor plummeting; technology scores are limping along as usual; bankers are griping about their salaries; CIBC has taken last place. In other words, it is business as usual.
Perhaps the one discernible difference from last year’s Report Card is that advisors working in banks and credit unions appear a bit happier, in spite of it all. The upsurge in banker morale, like that of the brokers and financial planners surveyed earlier this year, seems to be following the market recovery.
“When markets are good, morale is usually pretty good,” says Don Rolfe, president and CEO of Credential Financial Inc. and Ethical Funds Co. in Vancouver, which is owned by the eight provincial credit union centrals and CUMIS Group Ltd. “Everybody rises in a rising tide.”
But just how long that tide will rise is anyone’s guess. In an industry constantly on the brink of the next merger, bankers could be feeling some apprehension. Not at Scotiabank, says Sue Graham Parker, the bank’s senior vice president of retail and small-business banking in Toronto. “It may be on our radar, but it’s certainly not affecting anything we do,” she says, adding that potential mergers haven’t had any impact on spending. “It’s business as usual.”
That’s easy for Scotiabank to say. With a market cap of $33 billion (trailing only Royal Bank with its $41.6 billion), the bank is in a strong position, but Graham Parker won’t venture whether Scotiabank would be an acquirer or a target should a merger be allowed.
Scotiabankers don’t seem worried about it. “The only thing consolidation has done is increase our portfolios,” says an account manager in Ontario. In fact, a handful of Scotiabankers claim the merger between TD and Canada Trust in 2000 yielded them more clients. “We got a lot of clients from the TD Canada Trust merger,” says one Maritimer.
Indeed, mergers don’t appear to be much of an issue at any of Canada’s big banks. The 168 account managers IE spoke to for this year’s Report Card rated the impact of mergers and consolidations at 7.1 — hardly a reason to sound the alarm bells.
“It’s not a black cloud on top of us,” says Paolo Pizzuto, vice president, sales and services strategy, at National Bank of Canada in Montreal. “It’s not something that has been lingering or is worrisome for us.”
It’s the same story at Credential Financial — acquisitions are seen as an opportunity. “We’re not nervous about bank mergers,” says Rolfe. “If anything, we view them as a chance to consolidate business and acquire new clients.”
What has bankers talking this year are the usual suspects: poor technology and inadequate compensation. While most bank executives contacted by IE say they are making additional upgrades in these areas, they might do well to take their cues from Scotiabank.
Last year, the bank launched an education program called “My Learning Centre,” an interactive Web-based learning tool that bankers can use without outside assistance. As well, the bank has in-class training, CD-ROM and Internet workshops, and all personal bankers are required to complete a series of financial planning courses. Ratings for training at Scotiabank may have risen only slightly this year, to 8.4 (the top score across the board), but employees are vocal about the bank’s efforts to keep them educated.
“There is a mandate to be knowledgeable,” says a Scotiabanker from Alberta.
This surge of employee satisfaction is probably no surprise to the top brass at Scotiabank. The bank has implemented a three-pronged approach to eliciting employee feedback: internal employee surveys, a toll-free phone line for suggestions and an employee recognition program that allows workers to acknowledge good work by their peers.