Five Banks Gain Share Among Affluent Households

NEW YORK, July 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- In a robust, large-scale study of 4,600 affluent consumers, TNS found five banks that have achieved material organic growth in their affluent customer base over the past two years. All of these had superior performance in terms of acquiring and retaining affluent customers.

1. Bank of America
2. Chase Bank
3. Capital One Bank
4. TD Bank
5. Key Bank

The study, "Banking the Affluent Consumer," targeted households with $100,000 or more in investable assets. This segment controls over 90% of all personal financial wealth in the U.S.  

The study also found that CDs, Savings, and Money Market Deposit Accounts were the products most commonly opened by affluent households over the past year. These households are twice as likely as consumers at large to have acquired new IRA/KEOGHs accounts or Mutual Funds in the past year. They are less likely to have taken out new installment loans. Credit unions lost market share among the affluent in the 2009-2010 period.

"The dynamics of customer retention and share of wallet growth are materially different," said Joe Hagan, Senior Vice President of multi-client programs at TNS. "Despite being relatively unimportant to customer retention, effective management of customer relationships, e.g., showing customers that you know them and their history with you, and rewarding their loyalty, is critically important to growing share of wallet.  Yet affluent customers tend to give their banks low marks in these areas."

About TNS

TNS is the world's largest custom research agency delivering actionable insights and research-based business advice to its clients so they can make more effective business decisions.  TNS offers comprehensive industry knowledge within the Consumer, Technology, Finance, Automotive and Political & Social sectors, supported by a unique product offering that stretches across the entire range of marketing and business issues, specialising in product development & innovation, brand & communication, stakeholder management, retail & shopper, and qualitative research. Delivering best-in-class service across more than 70 countries, TNS is part of Kantar, the world's largest research, insight and consultancy network. Please visit www.tns-us.com for more information.

The Kantar Group

The Kantar Group is one of the world's largest research, insight and consultancy networks. By uniting the diverse talents of more than 20 specialist companies – including the recently-acquired TNS – the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and actionable insights for the global business community. Its 26,500 employees work across 80 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies.  The Kantar Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WPP Group plc. For further information, please visit www.kantar.com

SOURCE TNS