In April, we introduced the Financial Services Monthly Performance scorecard produced by Compete. It summarizes the overall performance of 23 large U.S. financial institutions and lead-generation sites. Refer here for the detailed methodology as well as companies tracked. 

Commentary
In September, leads for home equity, mortgage purchase and refinance continued to decline. Regular savings accounts also dropped significantly, although the high-yield version savings booked an 8% increase.

Other highlights in September:  

• Within the deposit category, checking accounts and regular savings declined; however, the high-yield category showed good growth with 137,000 online applications from two million shoppers, 11,000 more than last month.
• While there were 8% more online credit card shoppers this month, lower conversion rates resulted in a 3% decline in submitted applications. 
• On the loan side, both home equity and purchase mortgage categories experienced more shopping activity. But once again, a decline in conversion rates resulted in fewer submitted leads/applications. 
• Refinance mortgages continued to slide in both online shopping activity (down 14%) and submitted leads/applications (down 8%). Several lenders saw double-digit percentage declines.