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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39169002,00.htm

Bank managers admit failing to handle tech
They get people, not data...

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Thursday 01 November 2007

Senior managers in UK banks have a good opinion of their staff and strategy - but a less rosy view of how they handle information and IT.

This is according to a benchmarking survey, conducted for the Chartered Institute of Banks in Scotland and consultancy Charteris entitled Multi-channel Benchmarking Study: Retail Financial Services, which polled 40 senior business managers in 12 UK banks about the quality of their internal structures.

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The managers were asked how they would benchmark themselves on a number of commercial aspects, including information, people, processes, strategy and technology.

The leader of the study at Charteris, Steven Hewett, said the banks rated themselves well on the calibre of the people they employ and the strategies they formulate - but badly on their management of information and even worse on the technology in place.

Hewett told silicon.com the interviews indicate all participating banks see the need to switch from product-oriented strategies to a greater customer focus - moving away from a 'here are our products, take them or leave them' attitude.

But from the respondents' answers, Hewett thinks these banks are not quite as customer-centric as they would like to believe and that executives are blaming their shortcomings on the technology they have, when they still have a culture centred on offering products.

He said: "There is a will to get one view of the customer throughout the organisation but getting that data to the people that most need it - those dealing with customers - is proving beyond many UK banks still.

"There is a lack of implementation of high-level strategy to move to customer-centric banking. Banks are still relying heavily on very good staff running around to keep customers satisfied."

Hewitt said the survey has been picked up by the Cranfield School of Management to support its own data, which suggests a global trend away from customer acquisition strategies - typified by the global mergers of banks over the last few years - to a need to get more value out of existing customer-bases by offering customer-centric services.