Retail bank branches were once the cornerstones of communities across the United States. The local branch took on characteristics of the corner store and stood before consumers as a shining beacon of authority. As the bull market of the 1990s accelerated, however, consumers increasingly sank their assets into mutual funds and money market accounts rather than into bank CDs and savings accounts.
Banks responded to this increased competition with a frenzied period of consolidation and super-mergers, which resulted in consolidated functions, lower operational costs and increased profits.
But even in this era of merger-mania, banks did not entirely forget about their customers. As early as 1980, banks sought to capitalize on the newest of technologies, the CIF (Central Information File) databases that allowed for an enterprise-wide view of customer relationships. Thus the concept of relationship banking was born.
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