Crisis communications case studies: Banks and financial institutions

1. Crisis communications:
Banking and financial
institutions case studies

2. 2

3. 3

4. 4
Mini crisis: AP reports Wells Fargo execs plan
junket to Las Vegas
Media reports that Wells Fargo & Co which received US$25B in
taxpayer bailout money had booked 12 nights at the Wynn Las Vegas
and its sister hotel, the Encore Las Vegas.

5. 5
• The company initially
defended the trip but
within hours Capitol Hill
investigators, lawmakers
and blog commenters
had scorned the bank,
and the company
canceled.
• Rooms at Wynn Las
Vegas and Encore are
consistently among the
most expensive in Las
Vegas.
• The trip was to follow an
announcement that week
that the bank lost more
than US$2.3 billion in the
last three months of
2008.
Lost Vegas?

6. 6
Mini crisis: HSBC breaks interest-free
graduate promise
• HSBC offered students an overdraft of up to £1500 for the
first 12 months after leaving university without being
charged an incentive to bank with them.
• Under the scheme, the interest-free overdraft would be
reduced to £1000 in the second year after graduation, and
£500 by the third.
• However, just weeks after students received their degrees,
the bank informed them that the interest-free scheme no
longer applied
• Graduates were hit with 9.9 per cent interest rate on their
overdrafts, which can amount to £149 a year.
• Thousands of customers joined anti-HSBC groups on
Facebook in protest and threaten to boycott the bank

7. 7
HSBC makes about-turn
"Like any service orientated business we are not too
big to listen to the needs of our customers. Following
the feedback from our graduate account holders, both
directly and via the National Union of Students (NUS),
we have taken the decision to freeze interest charging
on 2007 graduates’ overdrafts up to £1500 and refund
any interest charged in August. We are also pleased
that we will be working with the NUS to enhance our
new account offer so that it fully reflects the needs of
recent graduates". Andy Ripley, HSBC’s head of product
development

8. 8
Do the right thing!

9. 9
Case study: DBS
Asia’s Safest Bank?
Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO

10. 10
DBS ATM fraud timeline
Jan 4 Some customers informed the bank of unauthorised withdrawals made
in Malaysia through their DBS/POSB ATM/Debit cards.
Jan 5 Launches investigation. Deactivates cards, issues replacements, sets
up hotline, offered 24-hr compensation,, pro-actively contacts
customers with withdrawals in Malaysia. By 8pm, 200 customers
reported losses of about S$1,000 per account.
Jan 6 Holds press conference. Issues statement that investigation points to
card skimming operation at 2 ATMs in Bugis St in Nov, ‘11. 400
customers involving S$500,000 affected. Sends SMSes to users with
any new ATM transactions in Malaysia. Deployed more staff to call
centre, branch. Sends team to check all ATMs for skimming devices.
Jan 11 DBS CEO Piyush Gupta publicly apologizes and regrets anxiety and
inconvenience to customers. But added, it could have happened to
any bank.
Jan 13 Two suspects arrested with skimming machine in Geylang
Jan 14 New measures announced. Blocks overseas ATM transactions, sets
up real-time SMS alerts for withdrawals above a certain threshold.
Jan 19 More cases reported. Fully compensated all 17 affected customers
a total of S$23,000 within 24hrs.

11. 11
Jan 6 press conference: Tone matters
Lim Sim Seng, DBS Singapore country manager: “Half a million
(dollars) against a company that makes about S$7 billion in revenue?
I think we can survive.”
“….alertness has definitely heightened, not just in DBS but probably
in all the banks in Singapore. I think it would be foolish of them to
come back to try this again."

12. 12

13. 13
DBS learns to tweet
• July 2010. Seven-hour service outage prevented
customers from using ATMs and accessing their
accounts online. DBS worked with their back-end
vendor IBM to resolve the matter and resume services.

14. 14
Good news, get it out fast
Bad news, get it out faster*
*Caveat: Confirm, verify, clarify

15. 1515
Being pro-active
http://www.ideastorm.com
http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/

16. 1616
Real-time support on Twitter

17. 1717
 Consider People, Environment, Assets, Reputation
• Act quickly, search for details, verify allegations, launch
investigation
• Assess allies, call in your experts; notify affected parties,
authorities and higher ups
• Quickly share available facts with the public
• Show you care, don’t over-react or take it personally
• Accept responsibility when you are at fault
• Prepare a statement and stand by it; when in doubt, leave
out
• Tell the truth and be confident
• Simulate crisis: role-play strategies for dealing with crisis
scenarios involving digital media – blogging, social
networks, online video, viral emails, rogue websites
Crisis Communications Summary