$BAC nixes debit card fee. Competition does work. Will finance listen to marketing.$C $WFC $JPM $V $MA

Competition and public out cry does work as Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) nixes the $5 dollar a month cash grab. OK so they fix the problemo but what about the thinking that got them there. The fee increase is widely seen as a marketing debacle. How do we know BAC has learnt its lesson? You can only wait and see.

The debit card fee was hatched in the CFO’s office. He liked the spread sheet. The marketing guy might have known intuitively that it was a mistake. But he lost the board room battle.

This post was written from a caveat emptor perspective.

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#NIRI echoes #SEC Director of Compliance Inspections and Examinations

Jeff Morgan, FASAE, CAE President & CEO of the National Investor Relations Institute wanted members to be aware of several key points in a recent speech by Carlo V. di Florio who now holds the key position of Director of Compliance Inspections and Examinations within the SEC.

So investors as you are dealing with a publicly traded company, whose head of investors relations is most likely a member of NIRI you should be able to identify the following points:

 Governance. This refers to boards of directors and senior management setting a tone at the top and providing compliance and ethics programs with the necessary resources, independence, standing, and authority to be effective.

Culture and Values.Corporate leadership promoting integrity and ethical values in decision-making across the organization and requiring accountability.

 

Incentives and Rewards.Incorporating integrity and ethical values into performance management systems and compensation so the right behaviors are encouraged and rewarded, while inappropriate behaviors are firmly addressed.

 

Risk Management.Ensuring effective processes to identify, assess, mitigate and manage compliance and ethics risk across the organization.

 

Policies and Procedures.Establishing, maintaining and updating policies and procedures that are tailored to the business, risks, regulatory requirements and the conflicts of interest in the business model.

 

Communication and Training.Training that is tailored to your specific business, risk and regulatory requirements, and is roles-based so that each critical partner in the compliance process understands their roles and responsibilities.

 

Monitoring and Reporting.Monitoring, testing and surveillance functions that assess the health of the system and report critical issues to management and the board.

 

Escalation, Investigation and Discipline.Ensuring there are processes where employees can raise concerns confidentially and anonymously, without fear of retaliation, and that matters are effectively investigated and resolved with fair and consistent discipline.

 

Issues Management.Ensuring that root cause analysis is done with respect to issues that are identified so effective remediation can occur in a timely manner.

 

On-going Improvement.Ensuring the organization has a process to proactively keep pace with developments and leading practices as part of a commitment to a culture of ongoing improvement.

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$MF Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.All the Kings horses

Image via Wikipedia

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the kings horses and all the Kings men could not put Humpty back together again.     

Pre-industrial wisdom and observations still valid. Unfortunately.

Disclosure: George Gutowski writes from a caveat emptor perspective. When you are reduced to fairy tales you know its bad. Real bad.