As a result of its new business strategies, coupled with investment in IT development, the bank has been able to cut its cost-to-income ratio from 53.8% at the end of 2006 to 48.5% at the end of 2007, while growing net profits by 15.5%.
Without doubt, the most important development for the bank over the past 15 months has been the merger between Banco de Chile and Citibank Chile. The deal, which began implementation in January 2008, means Banco de Chile will absorb Citi's Chilean franchise and be able to offer financial services to its customers via Citi’s network worldwide.
The merger creates economies of scale and will rapidly grow Banco de Chile’s business volumes and customer base, says CEO Fernando Canas Berkowitz. “Banco de Chile’s specialised consumer loans division is now the largest Chilean consumer credit entity directed to the middle and low-income segments, and with the support of Citigroup, we relaunched investment banking services under the name of Banchile Citi Global Markets, which has quickly become one of the leaders in its field.
“The bank’s excellent results over the past four years are the fruit of work focused on creating a culture of customer service, a constant search for efficiency and the expansion of the customer base to which we try to offer a complete range of banking services through active cross-selling with our subsidiaries.”
