Wingspanbank - introduction and analysis

Bank One Corporation the number four among the nation’s largest banking and financial institutes made a fundamental shift in its strategy by introducing a Internet-only bank as a separate division of Bank One Corporation in June 1999. Richard Vague, formerly the CEO of the credit card conglomerate First USA, and James Stewart set up the new and additional Internet division of Bank One which was named WingspanBank.com.
The objective of WingspanBank.com was to offer convenient, comprehensive, and objective solutions to customers at competitive prices. The national scope was to extend Wingspanbank.com beyond the 14 states in which Bank One already operated. Additionally WingspanBank.com targeted on a segment Bank One could not reach with its branches – the growing group of Internet users who disdained traditional banks. Both, the present and future users of Internet banking should have given WingspanBank.com as well as its parent company Bank One Corporation a competitive advantage over its main rivals such as Bank of America, Citigroup, US Bankcorp., NetB@nk, chase.com and wellsfargo.com.
The one million new accounts for WingspanBank.com expected by management were a very unrealistic objective. WingspanBank.com’s strategy and an alliance with Lycos continued to focus on Internet users only and not on establishing any branch system even though surveys indicated the desire of customers to have branches and a physical contact to banks as well. Unfortunately WingspanBank.com was reintegrated into the Bank One Corporation holding structure by June, 2001. This resulted also out of problems with First USA, a bad press about Bank One and the resignations of several Wingspanbank.com executives.