Fifth Third Bank 2012 Annual Report Download - page 4

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Our eorts to meet the demands of the new land-
scape align with our belief that favorably dierenti-
ated banks with consistent, focused execution will
be rewarded. e back-to-basics operating environ-
ment is well-suited for our culture, our business
model and our practices. We provide critically
important products and services to individuals and
businesses, including nancial advice, safekeeping of
assets and funding for life’s key moments. Banks that
do the right things for their customers – listening
to them, focusing on building relationships rather
than transaction volume, and holding themselves
accountable – will be rewarded as they earn their
customers’ and the public’s trust.
roughout the last ve years or so, we have con-
tinued to invest in our businesses and to update our
sales processes. We believe that this attention to the
future was critical and the right course of action,
despite being dicult at times, particularly during
the crisis. e eects of this focus were evident in
our 2012 results. Net income available to common
shareholders increased 41 percent compared with
2011 and Fih ird earned a return on assets of 1.3
percent. High-quality loan growth, solid fee income
production, expense discipline and credit improve-
ment contributed to our strong results – results
that enabled us to increase our return of capital to
shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.
Total capital returned to common shareholders
increased by more than 275 percent from 2011 to
nearly $1 billion while we continued to increase
lending activity and maintained strong capital levels.
Despite the demands faced by the industry, we
never lost sight of our goals to improve customer
satisfaction and employee engagement. Fih ird
Bank ranked second in 2012 on the Ponemon
Institute’s list of the Most Trusted Retail Banks for
Privacy for 2011. Additionally, Fih ird Bank’s
2012 Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction score, as
measured by J.D. Power and Associates, improved
10 points from last year, and remains strong among
our peers. ese analyses and those of other third-
party research rms validate our work to improve the
customer experience, which corresponds with higher
customer loyalty and improved nancial results.
Customer satisfaction extends past components
like problem resolution, loyalty and retention. It
reects the whole experience, no matter how our
services are accessed. We continue to make invest-
ments in our distribution network through both
traditional and newer channels. We opened 15
banking centers in areas we have identied as growth
or underserved markets, relocated eight banking
centers and upgraded approximately 40 percent of
our ATMs with image capture capability. We are
constantly looking to new technologies and
methodologies to better serve our customers. We
have found that customers who use our mobile
products have lower attrition rates and add more
value to the Bank than non-users. To that end, we
made enhancements to our mobile apps, including
the ability to deposit checks by taking a picture using
an iPhone, and real-time alerts, such as transactional
updates for credit card, debit card and ATM usage.
Banks that do the right things for their customers –
listening to them, focusing on building relationships
rather than transaction volume, and holding themselves
accountable – will be rewarded as they earn their
customers’ and the public’s trust.