We continue yesterday’s discussion on the value of stock market research with Preet from Where Does All My Money Go (“WDAMMG”) and Brad from Triaging My Way to Financial Success (“Nurseb911) and myself (“TMW”). Today, we discuss topics such as what type of research is necessary for the do it yourself investor (again, this another lengthy post- clocking in over 1,900 words so be warned!)

RESEARCH AND THE RETAIL INVESTOR

TMW: Let’s address the second tension of independent stock research. Most retail investors are value shoppers and most DIYers want to rely on their own research. How do you, Brad, address the pushback from the retail investor?

Nurseb911: A lot of the time you get what you pay for; equity analysis and research is no different. If DIY investors want a discount analysis I can easily provide one. What they have to realize though is that I am not going to waste my time conducting research or an analysis on any business if I’m not compensated in some form for my work. Yes I am an author and enjoy publishing content on my website, but my time is worth something and if they’ve read my content for long enough they realize the effort and time that goes into what I publish.

In my private consulting I charge small business owners and individual investors a $75 per hour flat fee. When an investor considers they are receiving a SAML with a minimum of fifteen hours of work in it the retail price of $20 per report seems like a bargain to a lot of people and I’ve priced this program to be on par with the commission to buy or sell the individual stock.

The SAML program provides an inclusive stock analysis tool that I’ve already publicly published on my website (see Taking Stock in IGM). A fee only advisor would not provide this level of independent research or likely have the capabilities of providing one.

A DIY investor needs to think like the management of a successful company. You have to be proactive in your assessment of an investment instead of being reactive? Recognizing a fundamental shift in operations prior to it being announced publicly can save you a lot of money.

I would like to add that each analysis I’ve written has been chosen by a reader and currently I have a poll on my site for the next analysis: a Canadian Bank stock.

TMW: Preet- let’s look at this from the institutional side- is there sufficient push back from the institutions to not have independent research or do you think the industry says “yes, this is important that there is independent research and that the research is compensated properly”?

WDAMMG: I never found push back from access to independent research at all. In fact, speaking from my own experience, we had portals to third party research on our terminals from various sources: Credit Suisse, Reuters analyst aggregations, etc. Many advisors even paid for their own third party research through various research vendors. But this can partly go back to Brad’s comments on groupthink, or what Warren Buffett calls the institutional imperative. A lot of it looks the same, and how much easier does it become to push a stock when you have not one, but five different research reports to back you up?

TMW: So what you are really telling me is that institutions love research- as long as it helps them make a sale?

WDAMMG: Absolutely. From a compliance perspective, it can help cover an advisor’s butt too if investment recommendation and suitability is ever called into question – you have concrete support on the research indicating the relative volatility and other factors in writing.

TMW: From my perspective, I would divide the raging DIY and retail investor communities. The DIYers, many of whom are bloggers or commentators, probably have a better handle on the company than the analysts do since they are “normal people” and not subject to glass tower syndrome which Brad alluded to. I once joked on another blog that personal finance bloggers should form the government given that they write so extensively about money. The push back from the DIY crowd may have more of a “anything you can do, I can do better” theme which is great- with all due respect to both of you- since it should that people are actively interested in educating themselves about what they want to do with their money.

The retail crowd push back I would characterize as part of the trend of the financial industry to pretend that everything is free but the true cost is hidden somewhere else. As a result, we are conditioned to pay for nothing upfront. It is one of the more dangerous trends in financial institutions- telling your investors everything is free. The investor fails to see the input to output relationship. You have to input something (quality research, due diligence etc.) to get a positive output (good ROI).

KEY FACTORS IN RESEARCHING STOCKS

TMW: If a DIY wants to conduct their own research, what top three things should they be looking at as a basis for their decision making?

Nurseb911: An investor should always start with financial statements and the annual reports for the past three years at a minimum. While I understand the frustrations that many new investors have with analyzing financial statements you can’t do a proper assessment of a company without looking at them. These are the systems of what makes a company healthy and are no different than any physiological system within our own bodies. This is where you get a very good idea of what the company is about, what it does and any important trends that are occurring: are earnings rising, is book value declining, is the company growing sustainably, etc. Once an investor has an understanding of the overall business they need to concentrate on what makes a business successful: its products, services and people. If the business is something they understand, feel comfortable about and want to continue to pursue then there are three important fundamentals they should look for.

The first is profit; never invest in a company that isn’t making money. If a company isn’t making money they have to either borrow money to keep operating or burn cash/assets to continue operating. Take the time to examine the cost structure of the business, calculate their margins, compare them to industry peers and look for a competitive advantage if one exists. If the company isn’t making money put it on your watchlist. You might miss some upside as the company turns around, but you won’t be placing your capital at risk in a company that continues to decline.

The second is investor return; what you get paid back for investing your capital. Dividends count, but book value growth and return on equity (ROE) are vital components to evaluate. If a company isn’t growing revenue I want to ensure that management is being productive with their assets and increasing the value of the portion of the company I own. My capital is worth a lot to me and if I invest in a company I want to know that my capital is appreciating or that I’m being paid for the use of my capital (dividends).

The third is how the investment fits into your overall portfolio; does it help you to diversify from risk, sector exposure or another important component. Far too often an investor will choose an investment that doesn’t provide any meaningful diversification and exposes them to additional risks. Risk is what kills your returns. Investing is a balance between risk and reward, but an investor always has to be mindful of preserving their capital. If a company doesn’t fit into your portfolio don’t make it fit.

TMW: Preet- anything to add to this?

WDMMG: Not really, I’ll get on my soapbox instead:

There’s one free lunch when it comes to investing – you can reduce non-systematic risk by increasing the number of securities in your portfolio. Most studies peg 20 to 30 stocks as the minimum number required to effectively reduce non-systematic risk. Non-professional investors rarely have time to keep on top of 20 to 30 companies so I have to point out that a DIY investor with fewer positions than that is adding an element of risk to their portfolio that they may not be adequately compensated for. The relative return for that non-systematic risk may not be worth it, but it can also pay off for you (this is why many extraordinarily successful investors had concentrated portfolios, but many more investors with concentrated portfolios had extraordinarily poor results) – the problem is that if it works you can fool yourself into thinking that you have skill when all you had was luck.

TMW: This is more of personal opinion than anything else, but do you find most investors do not do enough research before buying. Preet?

WDAMMG: Not even close. If you are going to be buying individual stocks you should have the frame of mind of a business owner looking to take complete ownership of a business. If you wouldn’t be happy owning 100% of that business, why would you be happy owning 0.1% of it? And if you were going to buy a business, wouldn’t you spend weeks to open up the books, analyze your competitors, etc, and be prepared for a very long term commitment if you did decide to purchase? If you can’t comfortably decipher the financial statements, stop kidding yourself – you’re not an investor, you’re a gambler.

Brad?

Nurseb911: Absolutely.

I think if an investor can’t address the previous three items I listed regarding what to look for as the basis of their investing decision then they should have a clear answer of whether or not they’ve conducted enough research.

ETF’s and index funds are great products to invest in while an investor learns how to analyze individual stocks. My entire portfolio was indexed prior to starting to invest in equities and it gave me a great opportunity to practice portfolio rebalancing, dollar cost averaging and other important habits of investing. If you don’t have the adequate discipline to invest before you begin investing in equities what makes an investor think they can develop it on the run? Investing in individual companies brings a lot more risk than many investors realized prior to this current market decline. The rewards can be significantly higher, but also are the risks.

Far too often an investor rushes into a stock without having adequately done the research needed to understand the business. That might take 5 hours for you and 15 for me, but the important lesson is that we both understand our investment.

TMW: I tend to agree with both of you. The point being do not abdicate your responsibility to anyone. Only delegate it. Preet- your opportunity to give a shameless plug. What are you up to?

WDAMMG: For those who don’t know, I moved on from being a retail financial advisor to the institutional and retail sell-side with an index fund manufacturer. It’s a “me too, margin compression business” so it’s not without it’s challenges, but with a lean staff to keep costs down it means I get to wear a lot of different hats. But probably more interesting to the readers is that I completely embarrassed myself by auditioning for a TV hosting gig with the W Network. They had asked for audition tapes from anyone from any field of discipline. It started as an online contest with 400 submissions being whittled down to 20, and then those 20 reduced further to 7. The final 7, myself included, filmed for two weeks in March for three 30-minutes TV episodes to be aired on the W Network on June 21, 28^th and July 5^th (all Sundays, primetime, tentative) to declare an “Ultimate Expert”. Wish me luck! J

TMW: Good luck Preet. I’ll vote early and often if there is a chance. Thanks guys. Hope to do this again another time.

Welcome to my periodic insider series posts where I explore a topic in depth with some experts. Today’s insider series is part one of  a 3 way conversation between Brad from Triaging My Way to Financial Success , Preet from Where Does All My Money Go and myself about the topic of stock market research.

Just as a word of warning, these posts are extremely long (this post alone clocks in at 2700 words). For readability, I have alternated between normal text and italics. For shorthand, Brad is NurseB911, Preet is WDAMMG and I am TMW. Enjoy.

INTRODUCTION

TMW: Brad, let’s start with you since the genesis of this conversation is your SAML program which is making its way through the blogsphere. Tell me about it.

Nurseb911: The SAML (Stock Analysis Mailing List) is a subscription program I launched in January of 2009. Many readers over the past two years have enjoyed the various stock analyses I’ve published for free on my website. Often I took a rather tame approach to the analysis to discuss some background on the company, its investing prospects and various operational strengths that I felt could benefit a company in the future. In my private business, Triage Capital Management Inc., I conduct an analysis for clients on their business plans that bring together a wide range of topics including a situational analysis, competitive analysis, market analysis and strategic management.

Whenever I begin to research a company I want to invest in, say Coca-Cola (KO), I write one of these same styled reports in order to establish an understanding of the company’s current investment potential. I apply a series of the self developed Value Rules that I’ve derived from my own business/investing experiences and critically analyze a number of important criteria. I also update important information on all the companies I own or maintain on my watchlist over a period of time in order to get the best picture of a company’s current investment status: are earnings growing, are costs under control, has their target market changed, do they care about margins, how competent is their senior management, etc.

Essentially this program is a stock analysis tool that readers can use to learn how I conduct my analysis for any prospective investment. I have 41 free subscribers who use the program for various purposes; with some readers never intending to own the stock but acknowledge will use the analysis as a tool or template for learning how to examine another company. Alternatively non-subscribers can purchase the full analysis, after reading the public version I post on my site, if they are interested in the company or already own it.

HOW FREE IS RESEARCH?

Your program has been highlighted in Canadian Dream and Four Pillars and there appears to be push back to your research that I can be separated into two large categories:

1. Why do I need this research if my broker is already providing this and
2. Why should I trust your research?

Let me address the first pushback first- why you over, say, research provided by an on-line broker?

Nurseb911: It’s first important to realize a few things. Analyst reports and research provided by your broker are not free; the brokerage has paid for those reports in part with the commissions and fees it generates from your investing activities. Some reports are provided as a free service to investors, but for the most part these reports are quite expensive when you consider how high your trading costs are and how low the interest on cash balances is in your account. It doesn’t cost a company $19.99 to execute an electronic trade with today’s technology so where is that high cost coming from?

TMW: Preet- can you give me some insider views of the research department’s interaction with the retail sales force? As I understand it, analysts, with some notable expectations, are paid towards the bottom of the food chain in investment bankers relative to the sales staff. How does it work on the inside?

WDAMMG: The retail sales force (advisors) are profit centres. The analysts are cost centres. At a full service brokerage, the advisors have direct number access to the analysts. If a client had specific questions about certain companies the advisor can either call up the analyst for a detailed discussion, or even arrange a conference call with the client if need be. Many research reports publish the phone number of the analyst right under their name, you could just call them up too – my guess is that if you are asking the right questions, many of them would be happy to give you their insights. Phone calls with analysts usually lasted about 30 seconds to 2 minutes in my experience.

Analysts can earn big bucks. Before I actually got into the industry the original plan was to become a bio-tech stock analyst (I have a background in Neuroscience). My mentor at the time knew one of the higher rated bio-tech stock analysts on Bay Street and her income was close to the 7 figure range. You certainly have to put your time in before you get to those kind of levels, and you also need a certain amount of “celestial alignment” in the form of strong markets and strong relative performance. Analysts rank pretty high on the income side with respect to the average retail sales force I would say. You usually find one analyst per sector per shop (who in turn have a number of research associates). Analysts supporting a full service brokerage will have their research trickle down to the various different retail business lines (i.e. all the way down to the discount brokerages).

TMW: Preet, if analysts are indeed cost centres then and not the front line sales people, how do we make the leap from research for informational purposes to research for sales purposes? There’s something bridging that leap from informational- albeit completed for a sales purpose-to sales.

WDMMG: Well I think you have to take it all with a grain of salt. Over time roles have evolved. There was a time (still exists to a certain degree) where an investment bank’s sales force (in this case: the investment bankers who are facilitating primary market operations to raise capital for their clients who are businesses looking for money) pressured the research department to suit their purpose. At the very least it’s a conflict of interest. If you were leading a marketed deal, for example, your efforts would be helped by rosy research on the company. Conversely, I don’t think it’s a stretch to imagine that an analysts’ research report with high valuations has lured a business into securing an investment bank as their agent – think of a real estate agent who says they can sell your house for 10% more than anyone else. It’s tempting. Along the way, investment banks and full service brokerages have over time merged and grown into multi-business line financial services providers. Maybe I’m jaded, but research for information purposes never existed ubiquitously.

I should note that there are some analysts and analyst firms who just sell research and are not affiliated with investment banking operations or a retail sales force, but as far as I know, they are the exception.

IS RESEARCH A SALES TOOL?

TMW: So the question is, is it actually the analysts’ reports that are at fault or how they are packaged? I have to rely on some insider information myself since I have a few friends who work on the operational part of investment banks and they grumble that they read balanced research in which the sales department scratches out the downside risk and attempts to sell on upside- so is it the research per se or how it is presented? Preet, having been on front line sales staff before, why don’t you start?

WDAMMG: The use of research reports for the retail sales force is as follows. An advisor would sift through research reports based on the universe of stocks they actively follow (or clients hold or ask questions about). Research reports will generally have a 1 year target price for the stock in question which is based on all the available information in the market and the analysts’ proprietary valuation models. In many cases, an advisor would quote the target price first and foremost and then present a story, or thesis, which is also found in the research report. There are advisors out there who do their own research and compare and contrast with the analysts, but the majority rely on the research without second guessing it too much. One of the problems is that not many people properly frame the use of price targets (and the shortfalls). So as I said before, a target price is based on the assimilation of all known information thrown into a valuation model that is pretty much proprietary to the analyst or analyst team. The problem is that “all known information” does not mean “all information”. There’s a lot of unknown information. “Research reports serve to narrow the range in which we guess” is the better way of framing it, but how likely is it that a salesperson would use that tactic?

But that’s just my two cents. What’s your take Brad?

Nurseb911: I have no doubt that many analysts are honest, smart and good intentioned individuals. The problem I have with analyst reports and recommendations is that their purpose is to influence a target market (investors) to buy, sell or hold a stock. Analysts create reports in order to affect the behaviours of investors and not for educational purposes. No analyst report that I’ve ever read mentioned what important components of a qualitative assessment produced the company’s current quantitative results. The question of a conflict of interest is therefore a very important consideration for an investor who reads an analyst report or recommendation. If you don’t stand to gain a greater benefit from the information being provided then someone else is benefiting at the expense of your money. For an industry with an already established lack of transparency, reliability and open disclosure I think investors should be conscious and active in questioning how significant any established conflicts of interest are.

I don’t want to necessarily want to point fingers at who is at fault, but clearly the current model doesn’t benefit the investor more than the individuals writing or selling the reports. Sales people have to make money to live, but they’re paid very good money to offer an opinion which should be unbiased at best. Weeding out risk in an attempt to provide a compelling selling thesis doesn’t seem ethical or prudent for an industry already under the microscope of investors.

The research isn’t as balanced as it needs to be on operating fundamentals and I think that’s one of my biggest concerns. Far too often they’re spending time on profitability without addressing how those profits came to be and what operating fundamentals (qualitative factors) are going to protect profitability in the future. Commodities are a perfect example as everyone jumped on the bandwagon promoting buy recommendations on everyone who had metals in the ground. The problem was that costs were rising, supply was increasing from all the investment during the past 4 years and as demand slowed considerably a lot of these investments with high debt levels crashed 50-80%.

Adding to the conflict of interest is the significant groupthink that the industry suffers from. I don’t need to tell investors how often an analyst will recommend a stock as a buy, sell or hold only after something important has happened to affect the stock price positively or negatively. These professionals should be able to give better clarity to future developments and the impact of current fundamentals than looking to past earnings growth and profitability for future trends. If I’m going to pay for something I want to make sure that an analyst is proactive versus reactive on identifying the problems inside a business that I intend to invest in.

TMW: I think what you are getting at here is look at the source of the research. Groupthink is nothing more than symptomatic of any industry that consolidated like the financial institutions. As the old saying goes in business “no one every got fired for hiring IBM”- the modern equivalent is no one ever got fired for following the advice of Goldman Sachs and if a GS analyst said buy Citigroup, and I was an analyst at Merrill Lynch, I want to make sure I am saying the exact same thing since we are both chasing the same group of clients and don’t want to upset them with less than a rosy analysis.

Brad- I do feel that you are painting an overly broad picture of the analyst industry. Meredith Whitney first warned about Citigroup in 2007 while she was with Oppenheimer & Co.- a pretty white shoe Wall Street firm and she has continued to be critical of the financial industry since she has formed an independent research shop. Veritas – one of those independent shops Preet alluded to earlier- is a very good independent analyst shop which has criticized banks in the past- they have some outstanding research based on forensic accounting disciplines.

However, the better research comes from shops who are basically research shops only and do not have to feed the “sales” master sort of speak. It is also interesting to note that Whitney has become famous because she is not your typical Wall Street analyst- she’s female and relatively young- in other words, not another old white guy. My point being that if they are selling research and not trying to coax sales as well, the research tends to be freer, but not completely, without a conflict of interest. Let’s face it. They are in business and no one wants to buy from Dr. Doom but no one wants a Pollyanna researcher either who is a mouth piece for the sales department. It important to check your source of research.

Nurseb911: Whitney is a rare breed of analyst who has made a career of going against the groupthink of the business community. She doesn’t represent the majority and investors can learn a lot at times from looking at opposing views of certain stocks to gain a better sense of what risks a company is exposed to.

TMW: I do agree with you that Whitney is the exception rather than the rule. I think the lesson to be learned is get research from different sources; the opinions of big shops may be similar- the whole groupthink approach- but there may be some nuggets from boutiques which mainstream may not pick up on (sounds like business media vs. financial blogs!).

QUALITY OF RESEARCH

TMW: Let’s move on from the source of research to the quality of research. What about the argument that large institutional firms have access to CEO’s and CFO’s and, as a result, their research should be “better” since they hear it from the horse’s mouth (sort of speak)?

Nurseb911: I’m a firm believer that actions speak louder than words. Ask investors how many times they heard a CEO or CFO announce that a dividend was safe in the past twelve months only to later find out that their quarterly income from that company is now 50% less or more. It’s a question of perspective. If an analyst hears about a strategic initiative that will increase profitability likely their first reaction will be the impact on earnings. My first question is always, “Is this initiative practical?” Can the new initiative be implemented, make a difference and does the company’s management have the capabilities to do so?

Any CEO or CFO can dangle candy in front of an investor because they are polished corporate politicians. They receive training in public relations, sell ideas to the Board of Directors and are the face of the company. I’m more concerned with looking past all the talk to the actions or inactions of management.

WDAMMG: It’s very true that CEOs and other executives can roll out the red carpet when, say, a Fidelity analyst or fund manager calls as opposed to a small player. Part of this is due to the fact that institutional investors (like a mutual fund manager) can control a large portion of a company. They command significant voting power.

(part 2 tomorrow discusses, among other things, what research investors should conduct themselves)

What makes a financial institution healthy? I would argue it has nothing to do with who the lead dealer was in the last great IPO or who lent money on the last private equity deal but which financial institution has the ability to attract our money into boring old chequing and savings accounts. After all, where is a financial institution going to get the money to do the big deal? Why, from you and me!

Getting our money into a chequing or savings account has become big business: free iPod’s, annual interest awards and no-fee accounts are only some of the tactics financial institutions are employing to attract your money.

But what works and what doesn’t? And, how does a financial institution decide on what type of promotion to launch? I invited CitizenBank of Canada’s resident Bank Evangelist, Nancy Zimmerman, for a virtual conversation to explore the thought-process of a financial institution as it tries to woo our money into their safe (Nancy’s comments in italics; mine are in bold)

Nancy, thanks for joining me and agreeing to share your insight. For those not familiar with CitizensBank of Canada, please give us a quick and dirty of what it does?

Citizens Bank is an online bank owned by Vancity credit union. It’s a bit of a best-kept-secret in Canada! We offer all the usual banking products: Chequing (free), Savings (high interest), lines of credit, visas (including Amnesty Int’l and Oxfam affinity cards), mortgages and foreign exchange services (including wires to India or Philippines, 24-hr delivery). We’re governed by the federal Bank Act, and members’ deposits are protected by the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation.

CitizensBank is part of the VanCity empire which has a pretty substantial market-presence in British Columbia (and trying to put a foot-print in Ontario) but still has to compete with large financial institutions. There are obviously the major banks but HSBC also has substantial operations in the lower Mainland. Exactly how competitive is the market-place right now?

A: It’s incredibly competitive. Customers have so many choices. They probably already have relationships with 3+ financial institutions who are trying to sell them more. There are the old established banks all the way through to new players from retail (eg Canadian Tire). And whatever you buy, there always appear to be financing terms available – from cars to sofas. More competition. The internet is often a first stop for research. Comparison tables of rates and product features are popular and they put all of these financial institutions on an equal footing.

How does someone stand out when we are being marketed so aggressively by so many financial institutions?

AT: You cannot get away from price – great value is the entrance card to winning over a new customer. Next, particularly in the online environment, the benefit to the customer has to be clear, fast. As a Bank with a clear ethical policy, we hope we also appeal particularly to Canadians who will be interested in not just what we provide, but also how we do business. For example, we are carbon neutral. We offer term deposits used for micro-credit lending in developing countries. We give back a percentage of our profits to organizations nominated and voted upon by our customers. Being a good corporate citizen (we’re not called “Citizens Bank” for nothing!) is part of our dna, and we hope that matters to our customers as well as the great value.

Take us behind the creation of a promotion. Who thinks it up: head-office, the head of retail or the branches?

AT: These ideas, be it a new product or a spin on an existing product could come from anywhere – inside or outside the Bank. We encourage front line customer service reps to feed ideas through, we execute regular customer surveys, but then we do have members of the marketing team with specific roles to evolve the ideas. They will consider many parts – from the macro environment and global marketing trends to existing customer behaviour, competitive positioning and successes taken from other industries or financial institutions from around the world.

For CitizensBank, what is more important- getting new clients or having existing clients deposit more

money over?

AT: We’d like both! But given the question, deepening the relationship with existing members is the choice. A customer investing more gives us a thumbs up on the products and value we are offering and the potential for a longer term more profitable relationship for the customer and the Bank!

Take us through a CitizensBank promotion (yes, here’s your chance for a shameless plug), how do you roll it out, for how long and how do you consider it a success or a failure?

AT: Our latest promotion is on our Global Chequing Account, launching Sept 16^th. We’ve done away with the monthly account fee and pretty much everything is unlimited. However, the most exciting feature is that we’ve removed the fees for using ATMs when outside of Canada. These can be as much as $5 each time at other banks (there may still be a local bank machine charge). We believe this has great potential for those that like to travel – from the cross border shopper to the round the world traveller. No one likes fees.

So we roll this out in stages. First up we get our own staff prepped and understanding the benefits. This year, we’re trying a first: letting the blogosphere know about it before anyone else! Then we are letting existing account holders and our customers know and then it will be on to the Canadian public at large. We have a number in mind of new accounts we’d like to sign up by the end of the year and how much the accounts are being used. That’s our success measure.

What is the role of client feed-back in creating a promotion?

AT: As said before, we do have a continuous customer feedback channel as well as annual surveys.

Recently, we’ve started something new – a little bit open-source, if you will J

We created a Citizens Buzz online member advisory panel at the beginning of this year. Customers have the opportunity to provide information that will directly influence our product and service enhancements and marketing initiatives.

[Nancy pipes us: that’s also part of my role, as Bank Evangelist – to keep tuned to what Canadians want from their Bank and relay that back to the Executive – and you can bet I do, lol!]

Last question: here’s a question everyone always asks- can the branch manager give me an even better deal than listed and, if so, how much discretion does the branch managers have to give me an offer I can’t refuse?

AT: At Citizens Bank we are extremely transparent in our pricing. This is particularly crucial given we operate primarily in the online space. The price you see on our website is the price you get. This is in contrast to some of the drawn out negotiations you may have at a traditional bank. We want to be clear and simple!

Thanks for your time and insight!

Thank You for sharing your space with us today. If any readers are on twitter or identi.ca please connect with me @citizensbanker J

Just as a final note, some in the blogsphere have already reported on CitizensBank 3.4% interest ultimate savings account. If you live in Toronto, CitizensBank is also opening a branch at 700-184 Front Street East (Telephone 416.868.8310). Please visit the branch of call for more information.