While consumers benefit from improved financial literacy as required by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, financial institutions face tough challenges ahead in delivering customer experience in accordance to new standards.

Marketwatch.com points out,“Title X of the bank-reform bill will create the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, a watchdog that aims to clean up the consumer marketplace, and improve product disclosures and financial literacy so that consumers ultimately can make better purchases. Credit cards, mortgages, account overdrafts, payday loans are among the products that the new watchdog is likely to take up."

With this wide scope in mind, financial institution success in meeting the new regulations will depend on staff ability to communicate with customers effectively and within guidelines across all product lines. Banks and other financial institutions will need to hire employees who are accustomed to following stringent protocols when dealing with customers.

Another issue is that banks may decide to make up for lost fee income by charging for checking accounts again, which means they will face challenges in employee training, including training on how to sell the value of checking accounts to a population that has grown accustomed to free checking accounts. 

More than ever, financial services firms will need to hire, train, and evaluate employees consistently to ensure that they convey the correct information to every customer, every time.