ABA eLearning Courses
Retail Banking Fundamentals
Consumer Credit Products
Provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to discuss and sell consumer loan products to clients. After defining credit terminology and product features and benefits, the course reviews the two primary consumer loan categories - secured and unsecured - and the various loan products associated with each category. The course also covers the importance of bank regulations for consumer credit products in the lending process. Students learn how to use their product knowledge by matching consumer credit products and services to their client's needs.
Audience: Any branch personnel who will be discussing or selling consumer credit products.
Fundamentals of Consumer Lending
Covers the basics of consumer credit including terminology, categories of credit, credit worthiness. Students will learn the application process and the actions required to ensure bank compliance with regulations. By the end of the course, students should have a higher comfort level with consumer credit and feel an increase in credibility when interacting with clients who apply for consumer credit.
Audience: Any bank personnel with little or no experience in consumer lending.
Fundamentals of Mortgage Lending
Provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary to discuss or sell real estate credit products with clients. The course covers the importance of mortgage lending to financial institutions and the affect of the secondary market on the lending process. It also gives an overview of real estate basics; why a client might want a real estate loan, mortgage terminology, the calculation of loan to value ratios. The loan process is discussed from the client perspective and the functions of the various financial services personnel involved. Regulations that affect the mortgage lending process are introduced at relevant points in the course.
Audience: Bank personnel involved in the mortgage lending process, with less than a year of mortgage lending experience.
Introduction to Financial Planning Products
Designed to teach students about financial planning products and how they can fit into a specific client's financial planning strategy. After a thorough overview of planning products, students will learn three key elements in assessing their advantages and disadvantages: liquidity, risk, and return. Students will also learn to identify licensing requirements relevant to selling certain financial planning products.
Audience: Bank personnel such as personal bankers, retail bankers and call center employees who need to know about financial planning products offered by banks.
Personal Tax Return Analysis
Covers the basics of analyzing tax returns. Includes analysis of income sources, including wages, taxable and non-taxable interest and dividends, capital gains and losses, and rental income, identifying income trends and non-recurring income, and using tax returns to identify sales opportunities.
Audience: Bank personnel who are in a position to use personal tax returns from clients for lending analysis.
Referring Insurance and Annuities Customers
Introduces participants to the features and benefits of various insurance and annuity products. It includes life, health, property and casualty, disability, and liability insurance, as well as annuities; identifying client need for each type of product; the responsibilities of unlicensed employees and referral to a licensed representative.
Audience: Any employee who has the opportunity to refer customers to designated, licensed insurance sellers in a bank.
Referring Mutual Funds and Securities Customers
Teaches participants a professional and effective process for referring clients to a licensed securities specialist. Includes an overview of securities products, identifying a client's financial needs and matching those needs to a product, making an effective referral to a licensed securities specialist, and how to gather the information needed by the licensed specialist.
Audience: Bank personnel who manage client relationships and/or who are in a position to identify referral opportunities to licensed specialists.
Referring Trust Customers
Teaches participants how to identify and refer potential trust clients. Includes terminology, the basic elements of a trust, common trust products, identifying customer needs and matching them with trust products, and making an effective referral to a trust professional.
Audience: Bank personnel who manage client relationships and/or who are in a position to identify referral opportunities to trust specialists.
Revitalizing Customer Service
Presents the ten basic customer service skills that clients expect from any business interaction. Covers key methods for communicating with clients, effective listening, understanding and helping angry customers, and dealing with stress arising from customer interaction.
Audience: All levels of employees.
Understanding Bank Products
Understanding Bank Products is designed to give students an overview of the products and services offered by banks to meet the needs of consumers and small businesses. Gaining knowledge in the range of products offered by a bank will enable students to recognize when a client has a need and then suggest the appropriate product to meet that need. The bank product information contained in this course is presented in broad strokes and describes the products from the perspective of clients and their needs. Students also have the opportunity to learn beyond the scope of the course with activities they perform on their own.
Audience: The course is designed for branch client-contact personnel with at least six months experience. Those who would benefit most include tellers, new accounts representatives, personal bankers, platform assistants, and branch manager trainees.
Understanding Financial Planning
Introduces participants to the importance of financial planning. Participants will gain general knowledge of various financial products, and learn to assess a client's financial needs by evaluating their current financial situation using net worth, rate of savings, and cash flow. Participants will also examine how personal factors such as risk tolerance, goals, and time frame, affect a client's investment decisions.
Audience: Any employee who wants to understand the basics of financial planning and what financial planners do.