Products and services
Category: Branches
The nature of products and services that the bank is best able to sell depends on its know-how by type of customer:
Retail banking involves being able to manage mass products. High volumes, low margins, and requires sound IT support and organisation to make it profitable.
Wholesale banking is totally different: it rests on low volume, high margin products. Heavy IT is not so strongly necessary but the bank can not take the risk of a dissatisfied customer: image is very sensitive.
Try to get the trainees to focus on products and services using their imagination and common sense:
Think profitability and competitiveness
Define interfaces between credit, legal, and operations staff.
Case study
Divide the trainees into 3 groups, who will work for 20mn on 3 different problems. Each group will have a secretary, in charge of writing down the thoughts of the whole group.
Group 1: Describe a banking offer that will be designed for corporate business in a non-monetary area (Eastern Siberia). Trainees will have to develop schemes and services aimed at generating value for the bank working for corporate clients with no or very little cash.
Group 2: Define the pricing policy of a banking offer aimed at mass population. Business will be located in a large urban area such as Moscow, St Petersburg or Kiev.
Group 3: Develop a commercial strategy, including publicity and use of media, to develop a commercial offer in a specific industry: the car making industry.
In this exercise, we assume that business takes place in any currency but within national borders.
After 20 minutes, get together the proposal of each group and share the answers with everybody.
There is of course no standard answer for this type of exercise but the following this will bring some support for developing ideas. They will be displayed only for the sharing of results.
Banking offer
Concerning Russia and other CIS countries, developing business in non-monetary areas can be an element of development strategy, with specific know-how.
Offer in a non monetary area:
Identify local industries and tradable products
Petroleum, gas, steel beams, grain…
Establish a rating for commodities
Liquidity and value
Develop barter arrangement capabilities
Bank commissions in cash or commodities