• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Monday, October 23, 2006 12:15 PM

With its bright-red branches and cheerily aggressive sales techniques, Bank of America's expansion philosophy in New York City is borrowed from retailers like Gap and Wal-Mart. BOA has gone from zero to 41 branches in Manhattan in two years, and is now the Big Apple's fifth-largest banking network, with deposits of about $19 billion.

The bank adopted retail-chain techniques to measure branch performance and to map prospective customers to determine where to build next. A global technology, service and fulfillment executive helps oversee efforts to monitor and maintain what the bank calls "customer delight." Adopting motivational techniques from companies including Walt Disney Co., its branch officers learn scripted sales pitches and the company mantra, "concentrate to dominate."

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