HSBC formalizes savings bank acquisition for P1 B.
Multinational bank HSBC yesterday formalized its agreement to purchase PCI Savings Bank from Equitable PCI Bank for P1.1 billion in cash. HSBC chairman David Eldon and Equitable PCIBank chairman George Go signed the agreement at the office of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Rafael Buenaventura yesterday. Eldon...

NATWEST TO MANAGE UK DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS WITH TIVOLI.
IBM Corp's Tivoli Systems Inc unit has won the UK's National Westminster Bank as a customer for its systems management software, which it will use to manage up to 50,000 workstations. NatWest Technology Services will use Tivoli Enterprise for system, application and middleware management it provides to the NatWest...

IT SERVICES: CMG TO 'STICK TO THE KNITTING'.
Anglo-Dutch computer services company, CMG Plc stands out in today's global services market as a company that's set on remaining a strong, regional European player. With one of the highest gross margin rates in the business, the company knows what it does best and has no ambitions to break...

Coupons! Circulars! First Niagara Bank advertises like a retail store.
You call yourself a retail bank. And you talk about behaving more like other tail stores. Right? So how about inserting circulars with coupons in newspapers--like other retail stores? That's what First Niagara Bank of Lockport, N.Y., started doing this spring. The bank, which has $4.9 billion...

Internet Banking Threatens Local UK Branches.
A third of the UK's high street bank branches are expected to disappear by 2005 as the retail banks adopt internet and telephone banking methods, according to research conducted by Deloitte Consulting. The UK-based international consulting firm said that half the banking executives it surveyed cited channels such as...

Grab that steering wheel! Does your bank put marketing in the driver's seat? You can evaluate how well your institution is progressing by looking at the seven benchmarks of a marketing-driven bank. Use these 'roads signs' to confirm that you are headed in the right direction--toward the ideal of a unified marketing organization.
You call the bank with a question. The customer service rep knows about the loan promotion you read about in the paper and offers to answer your questions. You like what you hear. You walk into the local branch to apply; the branch officer knows about the promotion (and...

Cambridge Savings Bank knows how to toss around the dough.
Cambridge Savings Bank (CSB), Cambridge, Mass., ran this print campaign (right) recently to increase awareness of its commercial services among potential business customers. Although the bank offers a full range of business banking products, it is better known as a retail bank. Through qualitative research, the agency, Boston-based Fort...

Will you still love me tomorrow? Here are five myths about customer satisfaction. Once you see these fables debunked, you can start to respond in more realistic ways to customer metrics.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There are a lot of myths about customer satisfaction and how to obtain it. One fable is that you should strive blindly to "satisfy" all of your customers' desires. WRONG. Some retail banks fall into the trap of indiscriminately investing so much to satisfy customers...

Microfinance lending reached P3.3 B in Dec.
The banking sector's microfinance lending has reached P3.3 billion as of end-December last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said. BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. said the industry has "responded quite well" to the microfinance initiatives of the central bank. "Today there are 193 banks engaged...

Get the picture? New uses of video in the branch are changing the way that financial institutions market to--and interact with--their customers.
New video technologies have had a significant impact on our home lives over the last two decades. Think about things like VCRs, DVDs, TiVo, Movies/ Sports/News-on-on-Demand. These technologies have helped us to take control of out time. They have raised our expectations as to the nature of entertainment, and...