Strategic Issues in Financial Services Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Strategic Issues in Financial Services - Essay Example There are 13 banks that were involved in the annual JD Power and Associates Retail Banking Customer Satisfaction Survey (O'sullivan 2010, pp. 2). Out of these, the Cooperative Bank of England performed exemplarily and emerged tops. Abbey was rated as the worst bank in the UK. In addition, Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Clydesdale and Barclay’s banks were considered as performing below par. The National Building Society and RBS were the other banks that were considered as being best performers. The rating of the banks was done based on six distinct parameters. The ease of problem resolution, convenience to the customer, transactions, the offering of products like account openings, account statements and the fees that the bank charged were the six parameters used. The overall confidence in the banking sector is considered to have improved, this despite the fall of the Northern Rock as well as the recent credit crunch. The survey further stated that only a quarter of the respondents wou ld not recommend their bank to others and the same number believed that the stability of the banking sector had changed little. Despite the overwhelming support that the sector has regained in the last year, a sizeable number of the 3,300 respondents in the survey stated that the fees charged by their banks were the major factor for their withheld support. In the last couple of years, the credit crunch has negatively affected the performance of the banking sector with some international banks requiring bailout. The collapse of the sub-prime lending bubble led to a fallout that affected many banks globally. However, some banks managed the crisis considerably well, assisted by sound strategies. In this discussion, the focus is on the leaders and laggards that emerged from management of the economic crisis. The leader in the discussion will be the Cooperative Bank that was considered as the best bank in the UK by the JD Power and Associates survey. The same survey pit HSBC as performin g below average and this will be the laggard in the subsequent discussion. Formerly, people did not consider the extent of global integration. However, the multiple collapse of many institutions in the global scene presented a picture of how much integrated the world really is. Governments intervened with massive bailouts and other monetary regulations that were aimed at stabilizing the financial situation. As if to worsen matters, the effects were further strained by the recession that followed. It is in this background that the best strategies for survival and growth are tested. Both the Cooperative Bank and HSBC operated against this backdrop. What was regarded as the norm had to change drastically in order to guarantee business considering the mistrust that the crisis created. The Cooperative Bank was not spared. It made losses on its risky investments but the amount it made in losses cannot be equated to the amount that private banks like HSBC incurred (Cogan 2008, p. 7). The c haracteristics of the bank that made it suffer less involve the fact that its customers are also its members and are the ones that own it. The strength in this principle is that all approaches must be driven by consensus and are not reliant on a single stakeholder as is the case with HSBC. There is also a concomitant view that is for the long-term and also a stance that is risk-averse that allow the bank to be more conservative in terms of the strategy adopted towards retail banking. The Cooperative