Blog · Coverage and territory · Commercial banking
How a bank measures referral flow between its commercial, treasury, wealth and card lines from the referral log and the product ledger: referrals made per relationship manager, referrals that became a product within a stated window, revenue attributed, the lines that receive and never send, the owners whose customers hold products in other lines with no logged referral, and the identity that ties referral revenue to the receiving line's ledger.
A bank asks its relationship managers to refer customers to wealth and treasury, and wealth and treasury to refer back. The referral log and the product ledger say whether it happens, per manager and per line, whether it converts, and which lines only receive. This guide sets out referral flow, conversion, the imbalance, the unlogged flow and the identity.
Per sending manager, per receiving line, per period:
Referrals made Converted = referrals with a product opened in the receiving line within the window Conversion rate; first-year revenue attributed
Per line pair:
Referrals sent, referrals received, net balance
Per customer:
Products in other lines with no logged referral = unlogged flow
Customer and manager identifiers only.
referral-attributed revenue ⊆ receiving line's ledger revenue
Attributed, never added. A referral whose product does not appear in the receiving line's ledger fails and is listed.
| Sending line | Receiving line | Referrals | Converted | Rate | First-year revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial | Treasury | 140 | 61 | 44% | $1.9m |
| Commercial | Wealth | 88 | 22 | 25% | $0.6m |
| Treasury | Commercial | 12 | 5 | 42% | $0.4m |
| Wealth | Commercial | 3 | 1 |
| Line | Sent | Received | Net |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial | 228 | 15 | −213 |
| Treasury | 12 | 140 | +128 |
| Wealth | 3 | 88 | +85 |
Commercial feeds both lines and gets fifteen referrals back. That is the table the wealth head has not seen.
| Manager | Line | Referrals | Converted | Rate | Customers with unlogged products in other lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RM-04 | Commercial | 31 | 14 | 45% | 6 |
| RM-11 | Commercial | 4 | 3 | 75% | 19 |
Manager RM-11 refers almost nothing and nineteen of their customers hold wealth or treasury products anyway: the flow happens and is not logged, or the customer found the line alone. Either way the manager's referral count understates their book's reach.
Referrals counted, conversion not. Volume rewarded; wealth receives eighty-eight introductions and opens twenty-two.
Imbalance unseen. The sending line stops sending.
Unlogged flow ignored. The manager who refers by phone looks like one who does not refer.
Referral revenue added to the ledger. The bank's revenue exceeds what it earned.
Mapped once, the referral log, the product ledger and the customer master produce referrals, conversion, the imbalance and the unlogged flow per manager and line every quarter. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The commercial banking page describes the setup, and the lending-only guide covers the customers who most need a referral to treasury.
A logged introduction from one line's owner to another line's, with a date and a customer. Where the bank has a referral system, its log. Where it does not, an activity of type referral in the CRM. A conversation that was never logged is not a referral for the measure, and the unlogged flow is shown separately.
A product opened in the receiving line on the referred customer within the window, ninety days say, from the product ledger. Conversion per sending manager, per receiving line, with the revenue in the first year. A referral that converts after the window is attributed to the referral with a note, not lost.
Because a line that receives referrals and sends none is being fed by colleagues it does not feed, and the sending managers notice. The imbalance table per line pair is what makes the referral programme reciprocal, and it is usually the first time anyone has seen it.