Bank of America Corp (BAC) Doesn’t Want Your Business, but Thanks Anyway

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And second, in a presentation on the bank’s “customer relationship model” at a recent industry conference, the bank made a point to distinguish between its “retail” and “preferred” customer bases.

Metric Retail Customers Preferred Customers
Number of customers 40 million 8 million
Total Deposits $117 billion $273 billion
Average Deposits $2,925 $34,750

Source: Bank of America investor relations.

While the former outnumber the latter by a factor of 5-to-1, the principal strategic objective with respect to its retail base concerned cutting the costs associated with servicing their accounts. Meanwhile, its top priority with respect to preferred customers was “deepening the relationship.”

The Foolish bottom line
At the end of the day, there’s no getting around the fact that Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) is a business that owes a duty to its shareholders to maximize profits. At the same time, one can’t help but wonder whether choosing its shareholders over its customers will ultimately accomplish this objective.

The article Bank of America Doesn’t Want Your Business, but Thanks Anyway originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by John Maxfield.

John Maxfield owns shares of Bank of America. The Motley Fool recommends Bank of America and Wells Fargo and owns shares of Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

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