Introduction
Truist Financial corporation is the result of the recent merger, that occurred in December 2019 between SunTrust Bank and BB&T. It is currently considered to be one of the largest banks in the US, serving in 15 states, managing almost 3,000 branch offices, and possessing over 506 billion dollars in assets (Misback 1). The company grew through merges ever since 2008, when they first performed their big merger with Southern National Bank, in order to withstand the pressure of the world economic crisis (Misback 1). As it stands, Truist Financial is America’s 6th largest bank in terms of customer service, and 2nd in terms of weighted deposits (Misback 1). Nevertheless, even large banks have suffered greatly because of the COVID-19 outbreak due to the fact that bank offices were forced to close, customers lost their income for an uncertain period of time, and the demand for traditional banking products plummeted while giving a surge in demand to others. The purpose of this paper is to provide relevant and feasible recommendations for Truist Financial Corporation.
Recommendations
The reality of the market is that the COVID-19 crisis is going to last longer than a few months, and will leave a lasting impression on the financial landscape. In such a situation, Truist Financial should expect a significant dip in revenue and customer flow, and accept the fact that losses are inevitable (Acharya and Steffen e32165). In such a situation, the first recommendation is to save money and consolidate its assets, in order to ensure the continued existence of the company. At this point, Truist Financial employs over 58,000 workers in its 3,000 branches (Misback 1), not all of which, as it turned out, is economically necessary, especially in times of crisis. As such, the first direct way to cut losses is to close down redundant branch offices and optimize the rest. That would save money on salaries, maintenance, and other costs to support them.
The second recommendation for Truist Financial is to expand its online services. Before the crisis, the company pursued such a policy by allowing individuals to use mobile banking services to make transfers, deposits, and so forth, but the majority of crediting and loan operations for individuals and small businesses had to be done in the office (Acharya and Steffen e32165). Allowing the full range of banking services from the safety and comfort of one’s home would ensure the value and accessibility of Truist to customers even during the COVID-19 epidemic. Finally, the company must review its crediting policy in order to ensure maximum return on loans and reduce the number of defaults on money given to customers (Acharya and Steffen e32165).
Implementation Steps
All three recommendations can be implemented simultaneously but would follow different implementation steps. For downsizing branches, the company must first remove branches that are bunched up in a single location, then downsize the rest as the transfer of services online is being conducted. For the development of online services, the first step is to create mechanisms of safety and security of operations. Using fingerprints, biometrics, and other data would be preferable (Acharya and Steffen e32165). Finally, the crediting policy must take into account the type of work the person or a business is doing, and whether it is a critical service or not.
Evaluation Measures
It will be impossible to evaluate the successes or failures of the proposed activities based on their performance compared to the pre-COVID period, therefore new means of evaluation must be developed. Short-term comparisons with the months spent in the quarantine may be used as a makeshift measure. Banking services, office efficiency, and credit can be evaluated using Six Sigma or similar efficiency-driven systems.
Works Cited
Acharya, Viral V., and Sascha Steffen. “The Risk of Being A Fallen Angel and The Corporate Dash for Cash in The Midst Of COVID.” CEPR COVID Economics 10, 2020, e32165.
Misback, Ann E. “BB&T Corporation.” Federal Reserve Bulletin, vol. 106, no. 2, 2020, pp. 1-20.