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The forces of deregulation and technological development have created a highly competitive environment in financial services. Despite the quest for business-to-business service efficiency, most financial services companies know that they must not lose sight of the importance of relationship quality. As a result, there is growing interest in key account management (KAM) in these companies. Research on KAM in general is limited and little has been undertaken in financial services. There are several reasons why KAM practice in financial services may be distinctive: the regulatory environment; the sector's size and diversity; the high degree of intermediation; product diversity and complexity;uncertainty of product performance; the problem of measuring profitability; the challenges of interactive marketing using both traditional face-to-face and complementary direct marketing techniques; and the role of technology in delivery. A research agenda for KAM in financial services is proposed. It is argued that more knowledge in this area would be of benefit to customer relationship management (CRM) research and to practising managers implementing KAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]