Case Study: Bank Of America

Innovation in services is rare. In financial services, the last big breakthrough was online banking, nearly a decade ago. In October, 2005, Bank of America (BAC ) brought out a radically different product that broke the paradigm. It's called Keep the Change.

The concept solves a critical banking problem -- how to get consumers to open new accounts. The product works like this: Every time you buy something with a BofA Visa debit card, the bank rounds up your purchase to the nearest dollar and transfers the difference from your checking into your savings account. It also matches 100% of transfers for the first three months, and 5% of the annual total, up to $250 a year. Since the launch, 2.5 million customers have signed up for Keep the Change. Over 700,000 have opened new checking accounts and 1 million have signed on for new savings accounts.