'No bull'

About eight months ago Edward Luecke, market president for Bank of America's Sarasota-Manatee region, asked what he thought was an easy question at a meeting.

The query: Who in the room, of about 20 employees, could text Luecke $1 over the Bank of America smartphone app? The answer: two people.

That jarred Luecke. “We are in the business of helping people make their financial lives better,” says Luecke. “If we aren't doing it, how can we expect our customers to do it?”

Luecke says nearly all the employees at that meeting now can, and do, text money on the app. Leading the staff there is one of many moves Luecke has made in his unit of Bank of America since he was named to his BofA leadership post two years ago this month.

Luecke's unit has 33 offices in Sarasota and Manatee counties and $3.22 billion in deposits spread among 131,000 households. That makes it the largest bank in the region, with a nearly 20% market share in deposits. On business lending, the division is also large, with $52.25 million in small business loans and $93 million in commercial businesses loans in 2014, according to bank data.

The size presents Luecke and his executive team with a unique challenge: growing its top-of-the-market position in a banking industry undergoing rapid changes in regulation and technology advances. Working against him: Bank of America, from a corporate level, has made some notable missteps over the last five years, including an aborted move to charge monthly debit card fees.

Luecke, who also oversees BofA's three Merrill Lynch offices in the Sarasota-Bradenton market, has tackled the challenges partially by going entrepreneurial — not an easy task in a bank with more than $2 trillion in assets.

One of his best moves there is the creation of the Noble No Bull award. The goal is to get employees to speak openly about issues and concerns, both small and big, with no fear of reprisals. The person who uncovers the most significant issue in a year wins a glass trophy.

“I'm a big believer in throwing the skunk on the table and seeing what doesn't work,” says Luecke. “People need to feel comfortable giving feedback so we can address the issues.”

A recent Noble No Bull award contender came from an employee who says the bank's system to connect clients from one department to another, say mortgage lending to college financing, was “completely illogical.” Sometimes weeks would go by without a client getting a call.

Luecke, the employee and some senior managers in the region created a better process. Now a client receives a call from the referred department within one day, and there are internal tracking systems to hold employees accountable. The program worked so well in Sarasota-Manatee that the division's market sponsor, a BofA senior executive who answers directly to the bank's CEO, Brian Moynihan, has helped institute it companywide.

Luecke, raised on Long Island, N.Y., where he ran a lobster and oyster fishing business in high school, has made other changes at BofA. He overhauled the region's approach to volunteer work with community organizations. The goal is to do more work, but focus on fewer groups.

Another way Luecke addresses the challenges of a shifting market is to play small. In this regard, Luecke follows the strategy of several other national and regional banks that aim to portray a community bank-like, folksy feel that's backed by big resources. “We can be viewed as a community bank,” he says. “We need to educate our clients on that.”

Making Bank of America feel like a community bank certainly has an impossible dream component. But Luecke will go for it. “Brian (Moynihan) is committed to us delivering locally,” says Luecke. “It's a challenge we want to make sure we do right.”

Follow Mark Gordon on Twitter @markigordon