What Do Other Bankers Do?

Bankers are looking to cut costs everywhere they can these days. And one of the most noticeable places is in the annual report. The American Banker in a recent issue had some pretty impressive figures on savings in the production of annual reports.

For instance, the HomeFed Corp in San Diego two years ago printed a glossy 56 page annual report for $120,000. This year their report is 20 pages, and has been produced for $38,000. Many institutions are doing away with photographs and color pages. Some are using better writers to beef up the appeal of the report.

One thrift in New York decided to design the report in-house instead of using an expensive outside design firm. They cut their costs from $277,000 in 1988 to $22,000 in 1990.

The Bank of Boston lowered their costs 22 percent by reducing the size of its report to one volume instead of two and using cheaper paper in the less important back section.

Local printers are being used as well as in-house talent for design and layouts, cutting the very expensive agency consulting and sub-contracting work.

It would be interesting to see if the change in the annual report is noticed. We did a very unofficial survey from the BANKERS' HOTLINE office of 15 local people who receive annual reports from financial institutions. Not one of them had ever read one!

Copyright © 1991 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 2, No. 3, 4/91