Millennials are disrupting industries everywhere, especially banking, with the evolution of technology and convenience.
Citizens Bank recently announced plans to redesign at least 50% of its locations into cafe-style branches and says that it's started to rethink how to make those locations into more of an advice-based experience for customers. Beth Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Virtual Channels at Citizens Bank, joined us on Cheddar to break down the strategy.
Citizens Bank is focused on enabling millennials to access their banking anytime and anywhere. Johnson stressed the importance of mobile but added the bank's branch footprint is still an important medium for meeting customer needs. She added that different branches will be set up differently in an attempt to accommodate as many people as possible.
Johnson discussed how Citizens views trendy apps and digital tools such as PayPal. She said they think about "build, buy, and partner." Citizens already has almost 100,000 customers signed up with Zelle, Johnson said.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.
