In April, we introduced the Financial Services Monthly Performance scorecard produced by Compete. It summarizes the overall performance of 23 large U.S. financial institutions and lead-generation sites. Refer here for the detailed methodology as well as companies tracked. 

Commentary
In September, leads for home equity, mortgage purchase and refinance continued to decline. Regular savings accounts also dropped significantly, although the high-yield version savings booked an 8% increase.

Other highlights in September:  

• Within the deposit category, checking accounts and regular savings declined; however, the high-yield category showed good growth with 137,000 online applications from two million shoppers, 11,000 more than last month.
• While there were 8% more online credit card shoppers this month, lower conversion rates resulted in a 3% decline in submitted applications. 
• On the loan side, both home equity and purchase mortgage categories experienced more shopping activity. But once again, a decline in conversion rates resulted in fewer submitted leads/applications. 
• Refinance mortgages continued to slide in both online shopping activity (down 14%) and submitted leads/applications (down 8%). Several lenders saw double-digit percentage declines.

In April, we introduced the Financial Services Monthly Performance scorecard produced by Compete. It summarizes the overall performance of 23 large U.S. financial institutions and lead-generation sites. Refer here for the detailed methodology as well as companies tracked. 

Commentary
In August, the continued rise in interest rates led to a drop in home equity, mortgage refinance, and credit card applications while deposit accounts and purchase mortgage applications were up.

Some highlights from the monthly activity: 

• Credit Card applications were down 2% overall, but Chase (27%) and Capital One (5%) grew applications and conversion compared to July
• Savings applications were up across the group with the exception of Citibank which posted a 13% decline
• For high-yield savings, only HSBC and ING Direct saw both application and conversion growth
• Home equity application/lead volume and conversion dropped across the group with declines observed at 9 of 16 providers
• Purchase mortgage  application/lead volume was up over July with Countrywide and Capital One both showing notable growth
• The refinance mortgage market was flat overall, masking strong application/lead growth at Countrywide, E-Loan and NexTag while declines were recorded at LendingTree/GetSmart, LowerMyBills and Low.com

The researchers at Compete Inc. have developed a new scorecard that tracks the overall performance of 23 large financial institutions and lead-generations sites (note 1). We will publish this scorecard each month here at NetBanker and we will occasionally drill down into the data at Online Banking Report. To make it monthly scorecard easy to access, it will have its own category, <netbanker.com/compete>. 

There are a number of interesting insights from this data:

• Card applications were up 9% even though shoppers only increased 1%, helping push conversion to a healthy 21%. In this case "conversion" means they APPLIED for the product. We do not know whether they were approved or not.
• Checking applications were up 24% to 182,000, with the launch of ING Direct's Electric Orange having a role in that.
• Home-secured loan activity was up sharply from March, increasing 30% in the refi and home equity categories. Purchase loans were also up 23% month-over-month.

Notes:

1. Companies tracked: 

Credit cards: American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Discover

Deposits: Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citibank/Citi Direct, E-Loan, Emigrant/Emigrant Direct, HSBC/HSBC Direct, ING Direct, U.S. Bank, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo

Home Loans: Ameriquest, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Citibank, Countrywide, Ditech, E-Loan, LendingTree/GetSmart, Low.com, LowerMyBills, National City, NexTag, Quicken Loans, Washington Mutual, Wells Fargo

2. Definitions:

Shopper: Consumer who visited product-related content at a site in the competitive set. For the purposes of this Monthly Performance Update, a consumer can be counted for each site they visit. 

Application: Any Web form requiring the consumer to enter personal info including Social Security Number; counted only when completed.

Lead: Any Web form requiring the consumer to enter personal information, not including Social Security Number; counted only when submitted.

Conversion: = (Leads + Applications) / Shoppers

3. Methodology:

Compete's projections are supported by industry-leading data management and technology. The consumer and industry data is drawn from numerous sources and comprises the largest continuous consumer behavior database in the industry. Its proprietary data methodologies and patent-pending technology aggregate, transform and normalize this data and ensure it is representative of the entire U.S. online marketplace.

People are recruited to join Compete's member community through www.compete.com, the first website to help consumers personally benefit from clicksharing. Consumer data is also licensed from national ISPs and ASPs. This multi-source data collection methodology sets the industry standard for representative and actionable data. Members are protected by Compete's stringent privacy policy and data collection techniques that purge personally identifiable information.