Banking competition heats up.

• Author: Forker, Jennifer

Banks are courting customers with new technologies and services. As the battle for your savings and investment dollar escalates, the old "banker's hours" way of doing business has become a distant memory.

Leaders of Alaska's banking and financial institutions say the marketplace is more crowded and more competitive than ever. To avoid the death knell that befell so many in the 1980s, they're exploring new ways to meet the demands of businesses and consumers.

The playing field is no longer populated with a few privileged banking entities. Thanks to deregulation in 1980, credit unions have expanded their role, mortgage and insurance companies have jumped into the throng, and mutual fund companies are reaching for their own piece of the pie.

"As it relates to commercial banks, we're in deep trouble, quite frankly," says Marc Langland, president of Northrim Bank. "There's a tremendous burden of regulation that the other guys don't have to deal with."

"'It certainly makes for a very challenging environment," says Betsy Lawer, chief operating officer at First National Bank. "We have to figure out how to do it quicker, better, faster" than the competition. Lawer predicts that the economy will grow only 1 percent to 2 percent, at best, in the next few years. "It's challenging to reinvent ourselves in a flat economy ... and that doesn't give you much wiggle room."

The current makeup paves the way for even greater changes as the primary players try to carve out new niches in the industry. It's pitting national banks against local ones but also banding them together, in a sense, against the invaders.

"Competitiveness among commercial banks doesn't change dramatically," according to Langland. "We compete on a customer-service level. Our products are basically the same ...technological differences even out."

In the end, it'll be those banks and credit unions that best serve their customers that will survive the battle. To do so, according to many within the field, they must constantly update their services and move deeper into the world of technology and telecommunications-two fields that are driving all of the world's industries, says Lawer.

Bringing Banking To You

With instant global communication, banks must take their services into their customers' offices and homes, providing online and telephone services that afford 24-hour-a-day access to financial information.

Some Alaska banks even follow consumers into their grocery stores. Bank of America has...