We have all heard about the recent acquisition of Washington Mutual by Chase and Wachovia by Citi. Below was the online landscape among these competitors just 10 days ago. Prior to the acquisition, the rankings among top competitors in August were:

o #1: Bank of America with approximately 18.5M active online account managers*

o #2: Chase with approximately 15.9M active online account managers

o #3: Citi with approximately 11M active online account managers

In August, Bank of America had the largest share of online account managers at 25%, followed by Chase with 21%, and Citi with 14% among the top 10 competitors. Both WaMu and Wachovia had a much smaller share of 7% each.

Post-acquisition, Chase now takes the top spot with 28% share of active online account managers outpacing Bank of America by 3% points.

However, looking closer at both Chase and WaMu’s online account manager base, there may be less opportunity due to overlapping customers. For example, a customer who may hold two accounts, one at WaMu and one at Chase may consolidate their finances with Chase. In August, about 4% of WaMu’s online account managers were already a Chase customer, which means that although Chase is still #1 online it is by a slimmer margin if you take into account these overlapping customers. It is the same 4% overlap for Wachovia customers who bank with Chase.

One strategy for both Chase and Citi is to market specifically to WaMu and Wachovia online bankers who were not already customers prior to the acquisition. Our research shows that almost 70% of this WaMu online customer base live in just four states (California, Washington, Florida, and Texas). For Citi, 67% of this target Wachovia online customer live in six states (Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey).

It should be interesting to see if WaMu and Wachovia customers, especially those who have never been a Chase or Citi customers previously, flee to a competitor. One thing is for sure that both Chase and Citi need to engage with their newly acquired customer base early on and often if they want to retain their business.