Protect your windfall.

• Position: Marketing News - Interpreting consumer behavior allows banks to retain assets - Brief Article

If, like many other banks, you experienced a growth in deposits and new accounts following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Andy Daniell has a message for you: Easy come, easy go.

Daniell, who is vice president for analytical services at Harland Analytical Services in Atlanta, cites Federal Reserve data that shows retail and commercial investors began moving funds out of the equity market and into bank deposits in the third quarter of last year--an 11 percent increase over September 2000.

Those deposits were motivated, Daniell says, by a combination of factors, including--but not limited to--a desire for security in the aftermath of catastrophic events, market decline and falling interest rates. They can disappear just as quickly as the economy improves and as the fears grow dimmer, unless you recognize the early warning signs and take steps to forestall them, he warns.

And, as a Danish prince of some note once said, "there's the rub." How do you know in advance what your customers are about to do?

Daniell says you probably have the information you need already. The hard part is interpreting that information. By...