Banking on relationships

Perhaps the Credit Crunch has had at least one important effect. That is the nice to see article on the BBC that relationships between banks and their customers may matter after all: getting a mortgage, no longer a convenience product, now a suit and tie meeting to actually meet someone called a Bank Manager. Certainly actually seeing customers may help banks establish risk better but it is also a nice contrast to the focus on convenience and speed of the noughties.  Of course its too much to hope for, but perhaps in a broader way,  the humanic side of the experience might be the new differentiator. Relationships may indeed be the new rock and roll. So rip out those automated menu systems and offshore call centres and start to think people: I jest but maybe the pendulum is starting to swing the other way.