Auriemma’s Jaclyn Holmes discusses our recent point-of-sale installment plan data:
Full article available on nbcdfw.com.
(LONDON) – Auriemma Group is pleased to announce its sponsorship of a new award at the UK Cards & Payments Awards. The award, Excellence in Operational Innovation, will recognise the card issuer, brand, banking acquirer or payment company that has best demonstrated operational innovation resulting in a best-in class customer experience.
Submitted entries could include innovation across a range of disciplines and areas, such as:
- Transformation staff training to embrace new technology and or evolving staff environments
- An innovative approach that had a positive impact on staff well being
- Virtual customer service initiatives
- Digital services to enhance people and customer interactions
- Attracting and retaining staff initiatives
Judging criteria includes the following:
- Innovative and forward thinking
- Demonstrated employee or team impact and effectiveness during the qualifying period
- Positive impact on employees and either directly or indirectly the customer
- Metrics to validate against success criteria
Eligible entrants include brands and affinity partners, charge, credit, debit and/or prepaid card issuers, merchant acquirers and other payment companies. Entries should be submitted by 23 September 2019. Entries should feature initiatives implemented or launched between 1 September 2018 and 31 August 2019. A shortlist will be announced 13 November 2019, followed by the awards ceremony on 6 February 2020.
About the Card & Payments Awards
The Card & Payments Awards recognise customer service, excellence and innovation in the UK and Irish card and payments industry. Very well established and now in its 15th year, each year many eligible organisations compete for one of these prestigious Awards which are judged by an independent panel of industry experts.
About Auriemma Group
Auriemma Group’s mission is to give clients access to data and intelligence that drive decision-making. We provide information and advisory services in four areas: operational intelligence, co-brand partnerships, consumer research, and corporate finance. Founded in 1984, Auriemma serves the consumer finance industry from our offices in London and New York City. For more information, visit us at www.auriemma.group or call David Edwards at +44 (0) 207 629 0075.
Mindy Harris, Managing Director and General Counsel for Auriemma Group, will be a panelist at the CBA Live conference, scheduled for April 1-3, 2019 in Washington, D.C.
Harris will be a panelist for CBA Live’s “Efficiency Ratios: Right Sizing For Compliance” session, which focuses on best practices for building strong compliance risk management programs in today’s environment. Among other topics, the panel will address ways to improve compliance management efficiency, and prevent gaps and failures to find and fix the most significant risks.
“A variety of factors, including high-profile enforcement actions and heightened regulatory expectations, have resulted in a reactive approach to compliance management,” Harris said. “For many institutions, this has resulted in fragmented controls, overlaps in testing, and other inefficiencies.”
Attendees will gain insight on how to overcome common challenges, including aligning internal functions to best optimize compliance risk structures, measuring the success of compliance risk management programs, and trends in determining appropriate levels of compliance spend.
The session will take place Tuesday, April 2 from 9:20 a.m. to 10:20 a.m. In addition to Auriemma’s Harris, panel participants will include Rosemary Gaidos of Citizens Bank as moderator, and Paul Noring of Navigant Consulting, Inc.
CBA Live attendees can schedule one-on-one meetings with Harris to discuss how the firm’s data and intelligence can help navigate the current environment most effectively. In addition to compliance risk management program structures, Harris is closely following recent developments in preemption, exportation and the valid-when-made doctrine, as well as the merits and attributes of financial institution charters. CBA Live attendees may reach Harris at mindy.harris@auriemma.group.
About Auriemma Group
Auriemma Group’s mission is to give clients access to data and intelligence that drive decision-making. We provide information and advisory services in four areas: co-brand partnerships, consumer research, corporate finance, and operational intelligence. Founded in 1984, Auriemma serves the consumer finance industry from our offices in New York City and London. For more information, visit us at www.auriemma.group or call (212) 323-7000.
John Costa, Managing Director of Auriemma Finance, has published an article in American Banker’s BankThink section. The piece describes how recent court cases have created confusion over the powers of national banks, with some findings in conflict with longstanding precedent. In the piece, Costa argues that Congress needs to clarify and reiterate certain legal principles, such as “valid when made,” in order to reaffirm the national bank regulatory model.
You can read the full story here: Dear Congress: Time to clarify ‘true lenders’
For more information, contact John Costa at john.costa@auriemma.group or 212-323-7000.
(New York, NY): Mobile payments may be one step closer to replacing the physical wallet. Apple Pay and Alipay are continuing to expand their wallets to include much more than just payments—Apple Pay announced students can now carry digital student IDs that can open dorm rooms and function as library cards; Alipay’s users can now use their digital wallets to store digital marriage certificates.
And according to Auriemma Group’s Mobile Pay Tracker, product expansions like these can increase consumers’ willingness to adopt mobile payments overall. Auriemma’s research revealed that over one-third of mobile payment users would be interested in using mobile payment platforms to store identification cards. The same percentage also said they would be interested in using mobile payment platforms for government documents. This could create major lift in demand for these platforms beyond simply point-of-sale payments.
Apple announced in October 2018 that its wallet will support student IDs at three universities, allowing students to use their phone while doing laundry, going to the gym and taking out library books. While overall mobile payment usage is consistent compared to two years (31% of eligible consumers), developing the habit of using a mobile wallet on campus could have a profound impact on mobile payment usage going forward.
This is especially impactful considering mobile payment users are predominantly millennial (45%) and college-educated (69%). But over the last two years the average age of mobile payment users increased from 37 to 39 years old. The university market represents an opportunity to promote mobile payments to younger consumers, who are most likely to adopt the payment method.
The same month as Apple’s announcement, China’s Alipay joined forces with the Jiangsu province to provide digital marriage certificates for the province’s residents. The digital certificate makes it easier for users to apply for a mortgage, property transfer, or even establish a startup.
Allowing users to safely store digital versions of documents that aren’t always easily accessible— like a Social Security card, passport or birth certificate—positions mobile wallet platforms to surpass what a physical wallet can provide. To move beyond digital storage, mobile payment providers will need to partner with governmental agencies (like Alipay’s partnership with Jiangsu) to add utility, making them valid, accepted alternatives to the physical copy.
“Adding non-payment functionalities to mobile wallets is the next logical step in earning broader consumer acceptance for mobile payments,” says Jaclyn Holmes, Director of Auriemma’s Payment Insights practice. “Smartphones have already consolidated our technologies into a handheld package; using them to store keys, IDs, and government documents will only expand on that mission and push the technology forward.”
Mobile payment users show interest in using mobile wallets beyond the point-of-sale, but it will take some convincing to convert those who don’t use the mobile payment platforms already. While 40% of mobile payment users are interested in using mobile wallets for event tickets, membership cards, and boarding passes, only about 25% of non-users are interested. If mobile pay-eligible consumers had to select a single non-payment wallet addition, however, both users and non-users would pick storing government documents as the top priority.
“These product expansions point the way to how a mobile wallet can transcend the physical wallet—whether it be through providing you access to your apartment, storing documents you’d normally keep at home, or applying coupons directly to your purchase,” says Holmes. “For mobile payments to be successful, they can’t just replace the physical wallet, they need to improve upon it.”
Survey Methodology
This study was conducted online within the US by an independent field service provider on behalf of Auriemma Group (Auriemma) between July-August 2018, among 1,518 mobile pay eligible consumers. Respondents were screened to own an iPhone 8/8+7/7+/6/6+/6s/6s+/SE/X or Apple Watch (in combination with an iPhone 5/5C/5S) – a Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+, S8, S8 Edge/Edge+, S7, S7 Edge, S7 Active, a Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge/Edge+, S6 Active or Galaxy Note 5, Note 7, or Note 8 – Gear S2 or S3 watch (in combination with an Android/iPhone smartphone) – and/or other Android phone with KitKat (4.4) OS or newer. All respondents also have a general purpose credit card in their own name.
About Auriemma Group
For more than 30 years, Auriemma’s mission has been to empower clients with authoritative data and actionable insights. Our team comprises recognized experts in four primary areas: operational effectiveness, consumer research, co-brand partnerships, and corporate finance. Our business intelligence and advisory services give clients access to the data, expertise and tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex environment and maximize their performance. Auriemma serves the consumer financial services ecosystem from our offices in New York City and London. For more information, call Jaclyn Holmes at (212) 323-7000.
(New York, NY): Auriemma Consulting Group will have two speaking roles at Airline Information’s Mega Event 2018, scheduled for October 31st through November 2nd in Long Beach, CA. Both of Auriemma’s speaking roles will discuss how issuers and brand partners can evolve and improve their co-brand programs in the current environment.
David Edwards, a director in Auriemma’s International practice, will speak on the panel “Driving Additional Revenue Streams from Co-Brands: Lessons from Non-US Markets,” scheduled for November 1st at 11:10 a.m.
The panel will focus on how co-brand programs have or will be impacted by new payment regulation, as well as key learnings from post-interchange markets. Edwards, in addition to the panelists from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Kobie Marketing, will share how co-brands can thrive amid regulation by adopting collaborative approaches, embracing change and designing innovative solutions that are both desirable and relevant to customers.
“All markets around the world have or will be impacted by new payment regulation,” Edwards said. “But consumer desire for rewards and benefits is greater than ever – they will choose co-branded products over and above new alternatives.”
Jaclyn Holmes, director of Auriemma’s Payments Insights practice, will share proprietary consumer research in the presentation “Which Rewards Set Co-Brand Programs Apart – A Consumer Perspective,” scheduled for November 1st at 2:25 p.m.
The presentation will detail how consumers’ usage and perceived value of card benefits vary drastically, depending on the benefit offered. Issuers and brand partners alike are designing increasingly attractive credit card programs to capture the attention of young, affluent cardholders. Session attendees will learn which benefits best capture the attention of prospective cardholders, as well as which benefits drive increased card usage and retention.
“Rewards card value propositions have grown increasingly complex, with issuers offering robust benefits ranging from comprehensive protections and warranties to elite experiences,” Holmes said. “In this evolving landscape, it’s critical to understand your customers and their motivations for card selection.”
Attendees can schedule a one-on-one meeting with Auriemma’s team to discuss how the firm’s research and advisory work can help navigate the current environment most effectively.
(New York, NY): With the rewards war in full swing, the sustainability of some benefits has come into question, causing issuers to think critically about what they offer. Recent research from Auriemma Group’s Cardbeat® report identified the most and least important card acquisition drivers, highlighted the benefits that most impact usage, and revealed a general lack of consumer awareness for ancillary benefits. The study discovered that while card benefits may play a key role in acquisition, there is an untapped opportunity to have them more greatly impact card usage.
Glitzy benefits—contactless pay, VIP experiences, cards made from heavier metals—may pique a credit cardholder’s interest, but they are ranked[1] as least important when applying for a new credit card. Pragmatic factors, like no annual fee, rewards that never expire, and ID theft protection, on the other hand, hold the highest importance.
“Nonessential factors should be scrutinized heavily, especially if they are costly to maintain,” says Jaclyn Holmes, Director of Payment Insights at Auriemma. “Benefits that aren’t driving the desired cardholder behavior could be replaced by those that have a greater impact on spend, satisfaction, acquisition, and retention.”
Issuers must balance between benefits cardholders find important at acquisition and those that just sweeten the deal. While the most important benefits could be considered essential to a card program, less important benefits are still nice-to-have. And these nice-to-have benefits should be selected strategically—with an issuer’s target audience in mind.
Card benefits, however, are more than just acquisition drivers; they are an untapped opportunity to complement rewards offerings and can further drive usage. For all 37 benefits tested in the study—including general, experiential, monetary, protection, and travel—most respondents offered them say losing respective benefits would have little to no impact on their card usage. As an example, 65% of respondents said losing VIP experiences would have little to no impact on their card usage; 63% say the same for airport lounge access; and 61% for vacation package discounts.
“Rewards earned for spending on a card, like cashback or points, and redemption options are a key driver to usage,” says Holmes. “Additional program benefits can fortify a card’s value, but losing them would only nominally impact usage.”
And what’s more—as many as 55% of rewards cardholders didn’t know if any of their cards offer one of the benefits tested. So, while benefits may influence card acquisition, the lack of benefit awareness limits the card’s overall value potential and hinders the impact on usage, especially for those who don’t know they have them.
“Issuers should reinforce key card benefits valued by cardholders, especially those with the greatest likelihood to increase spend and loyalty, such as accelerated points earned on spend categories, waived fees on ancillary benefits, statement credits, and no blackout dates for using points,” says Holmes. “By communicating timely reminders in a way that demonstrates how a specific card feature can enhance a cardholder’s experience, issuers can capitalize on the acquisition, usage, and retention gains that its program benefits can provide.”
Survey Methodology
This study was conducted online within the US by an independent field service provider on behalf of Auriemma Consulting Group (Auriemma) in June 2018, among 800 US adults credit cardholders. Respondents were recruited from an independent web panel. The purpose of the research was not disclosed nor did respondents know the criteria for qualifying. The average interview length was 20 minutes.
[1] Cardbeat included maximum differential scaling exercise where 15 benefits were compared to determine the most and least influential factors when applying for a credit card.
About Auriemma
For more than 30 years, Auriemma’s mission has been to empower clients with authoritative data and actionable insights. Our team comprises recognized experts in four primary areas: operational effectiveness, consumer research, co-brand partnerships, and corporate finance. Our business intelligence and advisory services give clients access to the data, expertise and tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex environment and maximize their performance. Auriemma serves the consumer financial services ecosystem from our offices in New York City and London. For more information, call Jaclyn Holmes at (212) 323-7000.
(London, UK): Hold the phone: Email is cardholders’ most preferred means to communicate with their credit card providers, but concerns remain before issuers can deliver a consistent customer experience in that channel. Email topped the list of all channels, including phone calls manned by agents, live chat, mobile apps and SMS, according to Auriemma Group’s recent issue of UK Cardbeat.
Nearly four-in-ten cardholders prefer email when communicating with card issuers. Despite this consumer preference to communicate with card issuers by email (and with younger cardholders ages 18-34 also preferring live chat or mobile apps), issuers had not—until this year—invested as heavily into the channels for servicing or Collections-related activities. At a recent meeting of Auriemma’s Collections and Recoveries Roundtable in London, Collections executives discussed how digital channels could offer new opportunities to refresh contact strategies.
When weighing particular channel investments, issuers must analyse the performance of each potential channel and determine the contact methodology and channel mix that creates the best experience and increases an agent or collector’s success. Issuers are exploring how different channels can augment contact rates and payment rehabilitation within collections. For example, some executives are in the process of testing email’s efficacy by sending default notices digitally along with a conventional letter.
“The industry knows that email could be a highly successful contact channel, particularly for those in collections who tend to close off contact at some point in the lifecycle,” says Louis Stevens, Director of UK Industry Roundtables. “There is opportunity to develop email as a priority channel instead of a supplementary one. Many collections operations today are centered around a call-and-collect model, which could be less effective as cardholders skew toward preferring digital communication.”
However, integrating digital channels into the collections process can be a challenge, due to legacy system restrictions and painstaking approval processes. Currently, only 20% of Roundtable members offer live chat within the collections process, and further progress has been limited by the prioritisation of other controls, such as conversation transcript recording.
Despite the momentum for email, it is important that issuers maintain an excellent experience in the phone channel, which is the second-most preferred. One-third of customers prefer speaking with a representative on the phone, which is starkly higher than the 3% who prefer an automated service, such as an IVR.
Even though consumers have a strong preference for migrating more routine activities to digital channels, the phone is still the centerpiece for more in-depth and complicated interactions. This is evidenced in the Card Collections and Recoveries Roundtable Benchmark Study, which reports that the average handle time for calls has increased 11% since January 2018.
“Consumers don’t mind using self-service or automated options for simple tasks, such as due date inquiries,” says Stevens. “But for now, cardholders still call when they need a more impactful and in-depth experience.”
Survey Methodology
This study was conducted online within the UK by an independent field service provider on behalf of Auriemma in March-April 2018, among 800 adult credit cardholders. The number of interviews completed is sufficient to allow for statistical significance testing between sub-groups at the 95% confidence level ± 5%, unless otherwise noted. The purpose of the research was not disclosed nor did the respondents know the criteria for qualification.
About UK Card Collections and Recovery Roundtable
Auriemma Group runs a series of information sharing and benchmarking Roundtable groups designed for executives and managers in collections and recovery. These Roundtables combine executive meetings, industry-leading operational benchmarking, and peer group surveys to help participants identify tools, technologies, and strategies to offer best-in-class customer experience at all touch points.
About Auriemma Group
For more than 30 years, Auriemma’s mission has been to empower clients with authoritative data and actionable insights. Our team comprises recognised experts in four primary areas: operational effectiveness, consumer research, co-brand partnerships, and corporate finance. Our business intelligence and advisory services give clients access to the data, expertise and tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex environment and maximise their performance. Auriemma serves the consumer financial services ecosystem from our offices in London and New York City. For more information, call +44 (0) 2076-290075.
(New York, NY): As the time for Current Expected Credit Loss (CECL) implementation draws closer, most credit card issuers are working feverishly to develop workable models by the relevant deadline – 2019 for SEC filers, 2020 for non-SEC filers. CECL is intended to better capture the inherent credit loss exposure within a loan by measuring the total expected credit loss over the entire life of the loan, as opposed to other time frames, such as the next 12 months.
While the CECL standard applies to lending broadly and will not be overly burdensome for many types of loans, the new standard presents an unusual challenge for credit card issuers. The heart of the problem is the calculation of the “life” of a credit card loan. Since credit card accounts are revolving facilities, determining the life of a credit card receivable requires adoption of certain modeling positions. While the industry has not reached firm conclusions on modeling conventions for CECL, issuers have been discussing the implementation’s challenges at Auriemma’s Card Accounting Roundtable, where CECL has been a continual agenda item for the last two years.
Some of the major considerations currently under review by issuers include:
Allocation of payments. While the CARD Act stipulates certain rules for the allocation of payments, issuers are looking at other payment allocation methods for CECL. Under the CARD Act, principal payments are directed at the highest outstanding interest rate balances first (a credit card loan may have certain balances at higher rates than other balances – e.g., a 0% teaser rate for a purchase, but a 16% interest rate on other outstanding amounts). While this statutory principal allocation is intended to give the most benefit to the consumer, it can needlessly complicate the sizing of the credit loss reserve. An alternative payment allocation method called FIFO (First In, First Out) would allocate principal to the oldest balance first.
Portfolio segmentation. Any credit card portfolio is comprised of thousands (in some cases, millions) of individual accounts. Some of these cardholders will always pay the minimum amount due, some will pay the entire outstanding balance, and some will pay an amount between the minimum and the entire balance. (Using the average payment amount in a portfolio-wide calculation may give a distorted result: a portfolio with 50% minimum payers and 50% transactors will likely have more risk than a portfolio where everyone pays 50%.) While the correlation between payment amount and credit risk is not perfect, there is the general understanding that minimum payers are likely to produce a higher rate of loss than cardholders making more than a minimum payment. Most issuers, therefore, will want to calculate a loss exposure on multiple segments. Segmenting into the three categories mentioned (minimum, full, partial) would seem to be the most basic level of analysis and some card issuers will stratify their accounts into numerous payment cohorts (deciles). Beyond payment amount segmentation, issuers are also considering segmenting by other characteristics: months on book (longevity of customer), credit score, origination channel, etc. The CECL for the entire portfolio would be the sum of each CECL value for each segment. Further complexity is created by combining variables – for example, payment amount and FICO score.
The current lack of industry standards or modeling conventions has created great uncertainty among card issuers. This lack of consensus makes issuer comparisons fraught with complexity. While the original impetus behind CECL may have been a desire to create additional loan loss reserves, the lack of standards may result in widely divergent loss assessments for portfolios of comparable credit quality.
In addition to CECL modeling challenges, there are other concerns for issuers, such as governance and oversight. Should responsibility for CECL rest with credit risk, accounting, both or elsewhere? Generally, capital issues are managed at the enterprise level for large, multi-line banks. For these banks, CECL governance may be distant from the individual lines of business, increasing the likelihood that the modeling does not reflect the idiosyncrasies of the credit card business.
CECL will also have an impact on credit card portfolio M&A. In many instances, portfolio purchasers will have limited historical loss information for an acquired portfolio. Since the CECL model is based on historical loss experience, an acquirer will need to look for similar quality assets to derive a loss proxy. This additional ambiguity may result in a wider range of market prices for a given credit card portfolio.
Since increases in the loan loss allowance reduce operating income, the CECL adoption may have the unintended consequence of reducing lending capacity. Moreover, for an issuer with a growing credit card business, the CECL adoption is not a “step change” function but will be continuous.
Finally, issuers are preparing for a period of “parallel testing” where the loan loss reserve is calculated under CECL and under the previous methodology. But this begs the question: why a parallel run? It suggests that comparing the outcome of the CECL levels to levels under the prior methodology may lead to further mischief. If a card issuer calculates a lower level of loan loss allowance under CECL, will regulators require the pre-CECL methodology? A loan loss “ratchet” might be in the offing, just as the Collins Amendment became a “floor” under the new Basel III regulatory capital rules.
These are just some of the considerations that credit card issuers are weighing in the CECL implementation planning. Auriemma is involved in these matters in multiple ways including, notably, its Card Accounting Roundtable, writing comment letters to FASB, as well as bespoke consulting work.
About Auriemma Group
For more than 30 years, Auriemma’s mission has been to empower clients with authoritative data and actionable insights. Our team comprises recognized experts in four primary areas: operational effectiveness, consumer research, co-brand partnerships, and corporate finance. Our business intelligence and advisory services give clients access to the data, expertise and tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex environment and maximize their performance. Auriemma serves the consumer financial services ecosystem from our offices in New York City and London. For more information, call John Costa at (212) 323-7000.
(New York, NY): The battle for market share among branded credit card programs seeking prime and superprime customers has been fierce. Rewards have grown ever richer and, as the cost per acquired account rises, marketing efforts come with diminishing returns for both brands and issuers.
In contrast to the proliferation of products targeting prime and superprime customers, there has been relatively little product innovation for customers with less developed credit profiles, whose access to credit tightened as a result of the recession and some of the sizable regulatory changes that occurred soon afterward. But, increasingly, both issuers and brands are considering “second look” programs, which use different underwriting criteria to reevaluate declined applicants for credit with separate terms. For the benefit of brands and issuers, second look programs can approve more credit applicants and drive incremental sales by expanding credit access to customers who have lower FICO scores or thin credit histories.
“This segment of under-served customers is a significant opportunity for issuers and brand partners,” said Steve Serra, Senior Director of Partnerships for Auriemma Consulting Group. “With the intense competition now underway for each new cardholder, portfolio growth is a pressing concern, and issuers cannot afford to ignore any sizable pool of potential customers.”
At a time when many brands may be experiencing portfolio stagnation, second look programs can expand the penetration rate of a given co-brand or private label card by underwriting customers who would otherwise be declined for the primary credit program.
These second look programs layer onto an existing primary credit program, often in partnership with a second issuer. Second look programs can be seamlessly integrated into the application flow within existing point-of-sale (POS) technology to provide a smooth customer application experience.
“Previously, these customers would have been declined at POS and forced to look outside the brand for quality financing options,” Serra said. “These second look programs provide a better customer experience, strengthen a brand’s relationship with its retail customer and make store employees more comfortable offering credit.”
Brand partners that use second look programs can drive significant uplift in their credit application approval rates – typically 10 to 20 percent of customers who are declined for a primary program can be approved by a second look program. More approvals also translate to more loyalty – having a branded card motivates shoppers to spend and shop more, with 30 percent of co-brand and private label cardholders saying they have increased their spending with a retailer after being approved for its branded card, according to Auriemma Cardbeat research. A second look program can also drive incremental sales for a brand – in some cases, up to 10 percent year-over-year – according to a recent Auriemma case study.
Given the significant potential to increase approval rates and drive sales growth, brands should incorporate second look issuing rights into their issuer co-brand and private label agreements to ensure that the opportunity is available to them at any point in their contract term.
The benefits of second look programs are also manifold for card issuers. Issuers that build second look capabilities can increase the size of their card portfolios and gain greater market share. Additionally, many brands are looking for deeper underwriting as they have deep pools of under-served customers with an appetite for credit, and most major issuers do not offer second look services today. Thus, the ability to offer second look services can be a major point of distinction for issuers seeking to win brand partnerships.
“Second look programs are beneficial for customers and card programs alike,” Serra said. “Through collaboration, brands and issuers can better serve their customers, improve the acquisition experience and drive more loyalty and sales.”
With over 30 years of experience crafting profitable, long-lasting partnerships in the Cards and Payments industry, Auriemma is well-suited to facilitate these collaborations between issuers and brands. For more information, please contact Steve Serra at 212-323-7000.
About Auriemma Group
For more than 30 years, Auriemma’s mission has been to empower clients with authoritative data and actionable insights. Our team comprises recognized experts in four primary areas: operational effectiveness, consumer research, co-brand partnerships, and corporate finance. Our business intelligence and advisory services give clients access to the data, expertise and tools they need to navigate an increasingly complex environment and maximize their performance. Auriemma serves the consumer financial services ecosystem from our offices in New York City and London. For more information, call Steve Serra at (212) 323-7000.