As consumers and investors digest a barrage of bad economic news, banks, credit unions, and securities brokerages here are scrambling to reassure their own customers and to pick up new ones who might be fleeing weaker institutions.

Industry sources say that a proactive approach, which has included use of advertising, mailings, and one-on-one conversations, is paying off.

"The more we can represent a safe place and space for people's money" the better, says Greg Seibly, an executive vice president at Spokane-based Sterling Savings Bank.

Some institutions have launched advertising campaigns, while others are placing fact sheets in their branch offices and on their Web sites. Some are communicating with customers through the mail, while others are inviting customers to come in for a visit or to watch a closed-circuit video presentation designed to answer their questions. Some also are extending their office hours to create more opportunities for communication and are retraining employees to know what to say to anxious customers.

Steve Wilcox, regional director here for Minneapolis-based U.S. Bancorp, says the nature of the current financial crisis is unprecedented in his career.

"The current climate is the worst I've ever seen, and probably it's a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence," says Wilcox, who has worked in the banking industry for 25 years.

Sterling's Seibly says the unusual environment of consumer fear has driven Sterling to make a concerted effort to reassure its customers.

He says that although there was some uneasiness among customers as far back as the fall of 2007, the need to reassure customers crystallized for Sterling last summer with the rapid-fire government takeovers of three large mortgage lenders.

"The first kind of failure of size or episodic event where we really saw a marked change of customer behavior was when IndyMac failed on a Friday (July 11) and the government took control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac" a few days later, Seibly says. He says that since then, customers have been asking more questions and have moved money around and sought greater liquidity in their financial strategies.

Seibly says Sterling had eyed carefully what was being reported in the media about the economic situation and had sought to anticipate what consumers would want to know when they went to their local branches after the takeovers.

"What we try to anticipate is when an event like this occurs and when the media is putting a lot out, we try to anticipate what that will mean from a customer perspective," he says.

For Spokane Teachers Credit Union, the message is two-fold, says CEO Steve Dahlstrom. STCU seeks to connect with members who might be struggling with mortgage or credit woes and also seeks to reassure customers who have concerns about the safety of their deposits, Dahlstrom says.

He says STCU tries to encourage members to get in touch with the credit union if they are having trouble making their payments, rather than wait until they are delinquent and it's much more difficult for the credit union to help them.

"The other issue is just a confidence question," Dahlstrom says.

People have a lot of anxiety about the market right now, and STCU has been fielding a lot of phone calls related to current events rocking the financial industry, Dahlstrom says. The credit union is seeking to reassure members who have questions about the safety of their deposits, including notifying them of the recent increase, up to $250,000 per deposit from $100,000, in the insurance on their deposits.

U.S. Bank, meanwhile, launched an advertising campaign in August that emphasizes its balance sheet and longevity in the industry, Wilcox says.

Edward Jones financial adviser Stan Paluch says he has fielded a lot of phone calls at his South Hill office from clients concerned about their investments, but is pleased that fewer than he expected are pulling their money out of the stock market. Paluch says the message that the St. Louis-based financial services firm seeks to relay to its clients is that although the market is down right now, staying the course is the best answer for most of them, and it is encouraging people to try to maintain perspective.

Greg Birchell, a partner in the Spokane advertising agency BHW1 LLC, says one of that agency's big clients, Spokane-based Washington Trust Bank, also has pursued a marketing campaign to reassure customers.

"They've been very wise in the way they've handled it," Birchell says.

Washington Trust's ads have emphasized it's long history and "tradition of trust," he says.

Most financial institutions here are focusing on mailings to customers and on educating front-line employees about federal deposit insurance and are discouraging panic-driven moves. Most also have placed printable articles on their Web sites about market conditions and how they have invested their customers' money.

STCU's mail campaign, for instance, focused on the increased insurance on deposits, Dahlstrom says. He says calls have increased enough during the crisis that it made sense to contact every member. STCU currently has about 52,000 members in Spokane County.

"It's a little more efficient to send a letter or put an ad in the paper than it is to answer individual phone calls," he says.

Edward Jones recently provided a closed-circuit broadcast for customers, in which its managing partner and chief market strategist answered questions that clients e-mailed to the brokerage. Individual financial advisers at the company's neighborhood offices, such as Paluch's, arranged times for their clients to come to their offices to view the broadcast and to get their questions answered, Paluch says.

Sterling Savings has focused mostly on making sure its employees are all well-versed in what's going on in the financial industry and has launched a training recertification program for all of its 2,500 plus employees, beginning with the 1,600 employees who deal directly with customers on a daily basis. The one-hour training includes a test—and employees must score 100 percent to pass it.

Sterling also has begun enclosing information in statements about the economic climate and the safety of deposits and has revised all materials that carry the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. banner to include the increased insurance amount that now backs customer accounts, Seibly says.

The bank also has posted a financial crisis checklist on its Web site to explain to customers what the current market situation means in a historical perspective, and to encourage them not to take action based on fear, citing examples of when panic has created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Washington Trust also has a focused campaign on its Web site, with weekly market updates and information for customers titled "Learn about the strength of our bank."

U.S. Bank offered extended hours at its branches for two weeks in August to make its staff members available to answer customer questions at the same time it launched a focused marketing campaign nationwide, Wilcox says. He says the bank hasn't done direct mailings, but has focused on its solidity in its current marketing campaign.

Dahlstrom says STCU membership has increased, with more than 1,000 new members added in each of the last five months, and more than 1,300 in September alone. Typically, the credit union averages between 500 and 700 new members a month. Dahlstrom says at least some of the recent surge is from people looking to diversify their accounts.

Seibly says Sterling's approach to keeping customers informed has helped the bank to hold its deposits over the last year. He says Sterling has been the beneficiary as some of Seattle-based Washington Mutual Bank's customers have removed money from that bank.

Paluch says his office is doing well, and that Edward Jones is seeing some new interest from potential investors looking for more conservative investments.

Wilcox says U.S. Bank's ad campaign is having a positive effect on deposits also.

"Absolutely it has steered more customers into our branches, existing and prospective customers, to have conversations about the strength of our company. We have seen deposit growth, and it certainly has to do with this campaign," he says.