Responding to nervous customers.

• Position: Marketing News - Bear Stearns Companies Inc. - Brief article

Are customers asking you about the safety and soundness of your bank? The subprime mortgage problem and the recent failure of the Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns has created some public confusion about the security of the financial services industry.

ABA has generated a series of papers--backgrounders, talking points and communication kits--that can be used as a basis for responding to questions from either customers or the media.

The most recent backgrounder explains the difference between investment banks (such as Bear Stearns) and regular commercial banks--which have largely been insulated from the type of problems that affected Bear Stearns.

A recent talking points on bank soundness provided statistics showing that the banking industry remains financially strong and stable--in fact, many customers who were...