Last year, there was a lot of talk about branch renewal but what does branch renewal mean? For many, it means new logos and brochures, softer and more attractive lighting, new uniforms and systems that work at internet speed. But that is not what branch renewal is all about. Logos, labels and linkages are superficial and do not make a branch profitable.
BNP Paribas CIO Hervé Gouëzel tells Dan Barnes how he is working towards a strong centralised IT operations function, using partnership and outsourcing where necessary.Hervé Gouëzel, chief information officer and executive committee member at BNP Paribas, is striving to strike a balance: “There are three [IT] models. The first is the very centralised model, highly organised and with a global strategy. In the second model, there are these local baronies (fiefdoms) with everything decentralised. Between these two levels is the BNP Paribas model.”
Banks are tackling the payments market in a new way, driven by smaller margins and increasing volume. Dan Barnes looks at the techniques that they are using to achieve their goals. Increasingly higher volumes and dropping margins in the payments arena – driven hard by the demands of well managed and monitored corporate clients – are causing banks to address their future potential in the market. For some, the mathematics will not work out favourably. Potential solutions that are available to banks that wish to stay in the cash business include investment in technologies – to cut costs or offer higher returns through improved service – and partnering with industry competitors to combine their strengths and skills.
Regulatory requirements have put banks in a prime position to benefit from customer relationship management systems. However, there is more to CRM than technology, says Dan Barnes.Customer relationship management (CRM) could be the light at the end of the tunnel for banks looking for returns on regulatory-driven technology investments. Those banks that have invested strategically in their data infrastructure for compliance purposes now have the opportunity to leverage their stock of well stored and cleaned data to achieve additional benefits on their substantial investments.
Having the right custody model in place entails being prepared to embrace change quickly. This year, it will be critical for banks to get tough on standardising in areas where they have strived to add value, says Frances Maguire.Custody, and its related services, has now become synonymous with large lift-out deals in which the custodian banks take over the systems and staff of fund managers’ back offices and run them. However, new research into the securities services sector argues strongly that the lift-out model is flawed and unsustainable, and that unless the custodian banks react quickly, they are leaving themselves open to selective cherry-picking by prime brokers and other specialists.
Not many people know but Rabobank is Europe’s biggest internet bank. Micheal Imeson explains how the Dutch bank is building on this, while striving to maintain its dominance in other sectors.A small, unpaid army is at work in the Netherlands. A band of 40-50 men and women – all Rabobank pensioners – are targeting old people’s homes throughout the country. Their mission: to recruit as many elderly people as possible to the bank’s internet service. Their tactics: to be invited to care homes to teach residents en masse how to use computers, surf the web and make the most of internet banking.