The GCB Berlin cases describe a strategic transformation process of a German bank. Over a period of 3 years, GCB Berlin has transformed into a customer-intimate financial institution. The management team of the company used Strategy Mapping, the Balanced Scorecard, and a new sales-and-service approach as transformation tools to get the entire organization more strategy-focused.
This case presents the approach taken by ING Belgium’s Marketing department to build operational and analytical competency with the ambition of playing a leading role in the strategic transformation of the business. Students are invited to evaluate the bank’s achievements up to the time this case was written and to discuss the issues and challenges facing this ambitious Marketing department.
In a recent working paper, Dr Elisabeth Van Laere and Prof Bart Baesens provide a comprehensive analysis on the credit ratings of banks by Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s (S&P). More specifically, the research team has investigated how different factors influence the assignment of S&P and Moody’s long term bank ratings using a unique data set covering different regions, bank sizes, and bank types. By including new bank and country specific variables, the authors clearly show that Moody’s and S&P’s bank ratings are based on different input parameters.
There is no doubt the Belgian banking industry is under fire. The recent spate of government bailouts, takeovers and closures has made consumers anxious. At the same time, consumers continue to voice their dissatisfaction and distrust. This report is the 2010 edition of an annual study on the retail banking industry in Belgium carried out by Deloitte and the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School. This study analyses customer loyalty, satisfaction and trust towards the retail banking industry.
Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a major contributor to the creation of wealth in our developed economies. In industrialized countries SMEs account for more than 90 percent of all firms, employ about two-thirds of the workforce, and contribute to nearly 50 percent of value added in non-agricultural production. Like most active participants to the real sector of our developed economies, SMEs need access to funds in order to operate and to grow. It is well known that given their size, SMEs do not have a direct access to the money and capital markets. Their access to funds mainly depends on the banking sector. Without efficient bank lending, the development of SMEs will be hindered materially. Thus, the way banks price the funds they provide to the SMEs is of prime importance to guaranty an orderly economic development.
The recent crisis has been considered as the result of a systemic risk in the financial markets. The European Central Bank (ECB) has been targeted by the de Larosière Report to set up a special entity to track this type of risk and this focus on systemic risk is not unique. Regulatory authorities in USA and Canada are also asking themselves who should track this systemic risk. But what is systemic risk?
The case describes how ING DIRECT USA has become the largest Internet-based bank in the United States, and one of the thirty largest banks of any sort in the country. In particular attention is paid to the strategic positioning of ING DIRECT in the US retail banking industry, and what strategic actions the bank has undertaken to achieve and maintain the unique position the bank has achieved so far.