This second session was about banks, with two presenters: David Hemingway (Zions Bankcorp) and Axel Weber (UBS/Booth School).
Hemingway is from a large regional bank. He noted that older clients prefer branches, younger ones use the internet and wonder what branches are for. His bank tries to maintain both. He resents an apparent large tax break that credit unions have. He sees regional banks as successful in relationship banking and in niche banking. Zions has a profitable credit card business, but doesn't solicit new customers via mail. Quote of the Day: “The biggest waste of trees on the planet is junk mail for credit cards.”
Axel Weber addressed in a very general way the problems facing banks that are subject to many different local, regional, and national regulations. One example: the capital requirements in Switzerland are 19% but only 10% generally in the rest of the world. He says UBS is winding down its proprietary investment banking including its proprietary derivative positions. His expectation that doing so will create less appearance of a conflict of interest.
My attendance at the summit is supported by several sponsors, including the Department of Economics at The University of Regina.