Banks focus on female Customers

While the financial services industry is beyond the era of pink checkbook covers, banks are still learning to cater services specifically to women, without condescending to them.

Women's basic banking needs don't vary much from those of men. They need a place to keep their money and want to deal with people who are honest and straightforward.

"But they like a little bit of a different relationship," says Cindy Bateman, senior vice president and business banking leader of Key Bank (www.keybank.com) and president of the international board of directors for Financial Women International (www.fwi.org).

Cultivating that relationship is where banks have an opportunity. When it comes to communication and education, women are often seeking a different flow of information from what's traditionally been available.

"Women tend to have a life-stage approach to financial needs," says Lisa Caputo, president and CEO of Citigroup's Women & Co.

The banks that listen, hear and respond effectively to those needs stand to gain a loyal, inquisitive and increasingly powerful client group.

FEMALE FINANCES

By 2010, women will account for half of U.S. private wealth. That's a powerful segment of the investing community.

And it's a group that's been traditionally overlooked. At times, this oversight has been blatant, but more often it's been a failure to change with the times.

Outward gestures by banks, such as sponsoring community events and promoting themselves as female-friendly, are all fine and good, but banks need to take the lipstick off the lip service.

Women want to be recognized as more than just a niche market.

"They want more than just a product," Key Bank's Bateman says. "Women are just always looking for information."

Providing that recognition and information is a big part of the reason Citigroup launched Women & Co. (www.womenandco.com), a membership-based financial services company specifically designed around women's wants and needs.

Women's financial needs, Caputo says, are distinct for a whole host of socioeconomic reasons.

Women live longer than men. Even a woman married 50 years may very well need to know how to manage her wealth if she outlives her husband. Additionally, she may outlive her retirement savings.

Women are more likely to take a career timeout. They take an average of 12 years off to care for a child or parent, compared with only two for men.

Finally, women are more often caregivers, a role that extends their financial forecasts and worries beyond their own investments. They're often more involved with planning and oversight of the money needed to raise children, send them to college, finance their own retirement and help with grandkids. And they're often the ones figuring out who pays for what when parents and in-laws can no longer care for themselves.

As a result, women tend to be long-term thinkers, Caputo says.

WHAT WOMEN WANT

Citigroup's research before the 2002 Women & Co. launch revealed that women customers craved a constant flow of information and education.

"They want to be informed before they make a decision," Caputo says.

Women & Co. provides a variety of educational channels, including conference calls and master classes.

Female customers also want to feel that they're being treated as special -- a feeling that Women & Co. provides with such things as member-specific discounts, savings and special rates on mortgages and student loans.

Women & Co. also discovered that women wanted to be connected to other professionals they can relate to and trust, such as elder-care experts.

That's part of the reason Women & Co. partnered with Smith Barney, which connects members to financial professionals, and with Ernst & Young, which has established a hotline to answer tax and real estate questions.

Not all services are free. An annual membership in Women & Co. costs $125. While Caputo declined to release membership numbers, she refers to the group's growth as a high-volume business. Women & Co. has its eye on an international expansion eventually.

Local banking executive Susan Hepner also is working to provide women with strong, empowering connections but is going about it in a more understated way.

Hepner, a principal in the woman-owned certified public accounting firm of Freidkin, Matrone & Horn (www.fmhcpa.com), chairs the board of Fidelity & Trust Bank (www.fidelitytrustbank.com), a community bank founded in 2003.

Fidelity's placement of women in executive positions sends a quiet yet strong message to its clientele.

"If you have enough women in powerful places in a branch, you are courting women by definition," Hepner says.

What's next?

If Caputo has her way, Women & Co.'s message will hit home with the younger crowd. One of the most important messages she'd like to send is "start early." And get a financial plan, with goals mapped out at two-year intervals.

"Don't be like me," she says.

While that may seem strange, coming from the successful former press secretary to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and ex-Disney executive, Caputo can empathize with women whose finances take a back seat when personal or professional demands had all their attention and energy. During the Whitewater proceedings, she was subpoenaed and had to hire a lawyer.

Those legal bills left Caputo with a big debt that took a long time to climb out of.

Caputo also warns women to avoid the "my husband handles all the bills" mentality, another situation she's seen play out in front of her. She recounts the angst that her mother went through when her father had a heart attack. Although her father recovered, her mother discovered how unaware she was of the family finances.

On the local level, Hepner hopes that the diverse picture that Fidelity presents, both in terms of its varied backgrounds and women in power, inspires both its employees and its clients.

"To see that the future is there for you," Hepner says, "there's no limit to what you can do."

What are people saying about mortgages today:

Rates on 30-year mortgages edged down last week to a seven-month low. Mortgage-giant Freddie Mac reported Thursday that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages fell to 6.3 percent, down slightly from 6.31 percent two weeks ago. It put rates at the lowest level since they were at 6.24 percent the first week of March.

Bank of Hawaii, Central Pacific Bank, Territorial Savings Bank and Wells Fargo Home Mortgages all cut their 30-year mortgage rates to 5.75 percent this week.

Most people think of a mortgage as a means to an end. After all, you buy a house, not a home loan. But a mortgage is much more than the path to homeownership. It is a financial instrument that must be managed, just like any other financial investment.