Countries covered: United Kingdom
To say retail banking is changing is a massive understatement. The
greatest challenge faced by today's retail banks is how to provide their
customers with convenient banking — for if they do not, a new competitor
will find a way of doing so.
The changes now taking place in the retail banking industry are the most
radical in decades. Evolving customer demographics, developments in new
technology and a bombardment of new competition, have led the major
banks to re-examine their entire approach to retail banking. Above all, the
changes which are taking place have forced them to recognise that their
most important asset — the customer — is no longer dependent upon the
services they alone offer, but has many other options from which to select
the type of retail banking services required.
In a recent study, entitled 'Building Tomorrow's Leading Retail Bank',
written by The Economist Intelligence Unit in co-operation with Coopers
& Lybrand Ltd, nearly every banker interviewed expressed a significant
degree of concern regarding the potential for traditional banking to
become obsolete, due to the emergence of electronic service providers.
There exists a real danger that in the information age, the word 'bank' —
defined in Collins English Dictionary as a noun meaning 'an institution
offering certain financial services', may in future become more of a verb
used to describe the activity 'to deposit cash or cheques'.
One senior manager at a major Australian bank says his group discusses
this issue often, and feels that banks are in grave danger of becoming
irrelevant. Banks' ownership of the customer has been traditionally based
on frequent contact by branch visits, automatic teller machine (ATM)
transactions and mailings with bank statements. However, technology
developments are now enabling people to use their own equipment to
obtain access to a bank, posing for the banks the challenge of how to hold
on to their customer base.
Related Reports:
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Retail Banking Competitor Tracker - September 2009
BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Limited - SWOT Analysis
Retail Savings and Investments in Finland to 2013
Retail Savings and Investments in France to 2013
Retail Savings and Investments in the UK to 2013
Understanding the Growth Opportunities in Russian and CIS Banking (Strategic Focus)
US Retail Banking Technology Business Update Q3 2009
European Retail Banking Technology Business Update Q3 2009 (Business Update)
The Changing Face of Retail Savings
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