Financial Institutions See Selling Opp with HSA Business

January 23, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A majority of the nearly 1,200 financial institutions responding to a recent Wolters Kluwer Financial Services survey said they are offering their customers Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).

According to a news release on the survey results, 62% of respondents, a majority of which were community banks and credit unions, said they are offering HSAs. More than one in three of the respondents who said they were not offering HSAs indicated they are planning to do so in the next three months.

While customer demand topped the list of reasons institutions began offering HSAs (80%), more than half of respondents recognized the ability HSAs give them to generate new accounts (58%) and increase cross-sell opportunities (51%). The ability of HSAs to increase revenue (51%) was also noted as a significant reason, the news release said.

Because customers are still warming up to adoption of HSAs, the majority of institutions responding to the survey reported a small number of HSA accounts. Sixty-nine percent of respondents reported 100 or less HSA accounts, 18% reported 101 to 500 accounts, and 7% listed more than 500.

“Banks and credit unions know HSAs present them with a significant business opportunity and additional way to better serve their customers,” said Dave Roy, vice president and general manager, Banking, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, in the news release. “But it’s also evident that this market is still relatively untapped, and the greatest potential lies ahead.”

Of the nearly 1,200 financial institutions surveyed, approximately 24% said they had no plans to offer HSAs or were not sure of plans to do so, citing customer demand, lack of understanding of HSAs, and lack of management interest in offering HSAs as reasons not to offer them.

More information about HSA solutions offered by Wolters Kluwer is at http://www.WoltersKluwerFS.com/HSAresults .

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