Question

Customers as a Cost Object

Morrisom National Bank has requested an analysis of checking account profitability by customer type. Customers are categorized according to the size of their account: low balances, medium balances, and high balances. The activities associated with the three different customer categories and their associated annual costs are as follows:

Opening and closing accounts	$300,000
Issuing monthly statements	450,000
Processing transactions	3,075,000
Customer inquiries	600,000
Providing automatic teller machine (ATM) services	1,680,000
Total cost	$6,105,000

Additional data concerning the usage of the activities by the various customers are also provided:

	Account Balance
	Low	Medium	High
Number of accounts opened/closed	22,500	4,500	3,000
Number of statements issued	675,000	150,000	75,000
Processing transactions	27,000,000	3,000,000	750,000
Number of telephone minutes	1,500,000	900,000	600,000
Number of ATM transactions	2,025,000	300,000	75,000
Number of checking accounts	57,000	12,000	6,000

Required:

1. Calculate a cost per account per year by dividing the total cost of processing and maintaining checking accounts by the total number of accounts. Round your answer to the nearest cent.
$per account per year

What is the average fee per month that the bank should charge to cover the costs incurred because of checking accounts? Round your answer to the nearest cent.
$per month

2. Calculate a cost per account by customer category by using activity rates. Round your answers to the nearest cent.

	Cost Per Account
Low	$
Medium	$
High	$

3. Currently, the bank offers free checking to all of its customers. The interest revenues average $90 per account; however, the interest revenues earned per account by category are $80, $100, and $165 for the low-, medium-, and high-balance accounts, respectively. Calculate the average profit per account (average revenue minus average cost from Requirement 1). Round your answer to the nearest cent.
$per account

Also calculate the profit per account by using the revenue per customer type and the unit cost per customer type calculated in Requirement 2. Round to the nearest cent. Use the minus sign to indicate a loss.

Low-balance customers	$per account
Medium-balance customers	$per account
High-balance customers	$per account

4. After the analysis in Requirement 3, a vice president recommended eliminating the free checking feature for low-balance customers. The bank president expressed reluctance to do so, arguing that the low-balance customers more than made up for the loss through cross-sales. He presented a survey that showed that 50% of the customers would switch banks if a checking fee were imposed. Explain how you could verify the president’s argument by using ABC.

First, calculate the profits from loans, credit cards, and other products by customer category (using ABC data). Next, compare 50% of the cross-sales profits from low-balance customers with the total loss from the low-balance checking accounts. If the cross-sales profits are greater  than the loss, the president’s argument has merit.

Answer 1

1. Total cost of processing and maintaining checking accounts: $ 6,105,000.

Total number of checking accounts = 57,000 + 12,000 + 6,000 = 75,000

Cost per account = $ 6,105,000 / 75,000 = $ 81.40

Average fee per month that the bank should charge per month = $ 81.40 / 12 = $ 6.78 per month.

2.

	Cost per Account
Low	$ 87.37
Medium	$ 67.50
High	$ 52.50

Computation of activity rates :

Opening and closing accounts: $ 300,000 / 30,000 accounts = $ 10 per account

Issuing monthly statements: $ 450,000 / 900,000 statements = $ 0.50 per statement

Processing transactions: $ 3,075,000 / 30,750,000 transactions = $ 0.10 per transaction.

Customer enquiries: $ 600,000 / 3,000,000 telephone minutes = $ 0.20 per minute

Providing ATM : $ 1,680,000 / 2,400,000 ATM transactions = $ 0.70 per ATM transaction

	Low	Medium	High
Opening and closing accounts
$ 10 x 22,500	225,000
$ 10 x 4,500		45,000
$ 10 x 3,000			30,000
Issuing monthly statements
$ 0.50 x 675,000	337,500
$ 0.50 x 150,000		75,000
$ 0.50 x 75,000			37,500
Processing transactions
$ 0.10 x 27,000,000	2,700,000
$ 0.10 x 3,000,000		300,000
$ 0.10 x 750,000			75,000
Customer enquiries
$ 0.20 x 1,500,000 minutes	300,000
$ 0.20 x 900,000 minutes		180,000
$ 0.20 x 600,000 minutes			120,000
Providing ATM services
$ 0.70 x 2,025,000 ATM transactions	1,417,500
$ 0.70 x 300,000 ATM transactions		210,000
$ 0.70 x 75,000 ATM transactions			52,500
Total Cost	$ 4,980,000	$ 810,000	$ 315,000
Number of Accounts	57,000	12,000	6,000
Cost per account	$ 87.37	$ 67.50	$ 52.50

3. Average profit per account = $ 90.00 - $ 81.40 = $ 8.60

ABC profit per account:

Low balance customers: $ 80 - $ 87.37 = $ (7.37) per account

Medium balance customers: $ 100 - $ 67.50 = $ 32.50 per account

High balance customers: $ 165 - $ 52.50 = $ 112.50 per account.