Stock Market News: Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT), Walgreens (NYSE:WAG), BP PLC (NYSE:BP)
June 22, 2010 at 18:47 PM EDT
Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) are pushing their customers to buy more brokerage, savings and banking services from them as the weak economy and new regulations make it harder to earn money from loans and investment banking. Known as cross-selling, the concept has been fruitlessly pursued for decades by bankers eager to expand their business without having to find new customers. Now, banks are counting on cross-selling to replace some profit lost after the financial crisis, according to Accenture Plc, which estimates returns on equity have dropped 21 percentage points from pre-crisis levels to 5 percent. Profit is under pressure after bank assets shrank by a record 5.3 percent last year and consumer credit dropped 6.6 percent in 16 months, the most since World War II. Now…