Bank Strategy Assessment

Bank Strategy Assessment

Board members, chief executives and other senior management appreciate a thorough Strategy Assessment. “Is our banking strategy on track or supporting our overall strategy?”

By having an assessment, it allows the bank to:

  • Assess their bank’s overall strategy and those of individual units, against best practice standards
  • Pinpoint the improvements that are needed to make the bank’s strategy meet defined objectives / goals
  • Ensure that strategy is translated into practical, correctly-focused action plans and budgets
  • Upgrade the Bank’s strategic planning, action planning & budgeting processes
  • Increase the probability that strategy will lead to higher returns, margins, and expenses at an acceptable level of risk

“Strategy” is a military word. It implies that there is a conflict with winners and losers. The best bank strategies are clearly about how the bank is going to win against their competitors / peers. How they focus on satisfying customers and achieving excellent results.

CCG Catalyst’s Bank Strategy Assessment will conduct a comprehensively review

Objectives – What the bank is trying to achieve over the longer term

  • Which longer term objectives, if achieved, would satisfy those parties with an interest in the bank’s success – shareholders, customers, management and staff, the regulators, and your community?
  • Which vision and mission would attract preferred customers, shareholders and target personnel, and excite existing management and staff?

Business Strategy – How income is to be increased at acceptable levels of risk

  • How should the Bank focus marketing across different market segments, key customers, services, locations and delivery channels? What service quality, pricing and branding strategies to adopt?
  • What steps are needed to intensify selling in order to capture more new customers and to increase cross- selling, market share and profitability?
  • What changes are needed to credit policy and procedures so that they are consistent with other elements of strategy? What action is needed to advance credit management to “world-class” levels?
  • How can the cost of liabilities be reduced and the yield on assets increased? How much market risk should be taken? How should market risks and profits be governed by ALCO?

Support Strategy – How cost-effectiveness is to be achieved and sustained

  • How should the bank’s organizational structure evolve to improve implementation of strategy? Should the Bank adopt a market segment, functional, product, regional or combined structure?
  • How can strategic planning, action planning, budgeting, financial control, credit management and asset & liability management (ALM) be brought up to best practice levels?
  • How should the Bank reengineer operations to realize cost economies-of-scale? To what extent should operational activities be removed from branches and regionalized or centralized?
  • Elimination of Wastage: How should unnecessary activities and facilities, and thus costs, be cut?

Resource Allocation – How resources will be allocated in support of business priorities

  • How should personnel be reassigned into income-generating and risk management jobs and out of cost-creating jobs? How many people should be moved, when and after which retraining?
  • How should the Bank’s capital be allocated in support of different businesses in order to maximize return on capital? Should regulatory or economic capital be the basis for capital allocation?
  • How much money should be invested in IT? How should the investment be distributed across applications that support increased income, tighter risk management and lower costs?

Corporate Governance, Ethics & Culture – The values for maintaining good behavior

  • What changes at Board and executive management level are needed to bring the Bank in line with best practice corporate governance codes that are now demanded by shareholders and regulators?
  • Which subjects should be covered in the Bank’s Code of Ethics with aim of improving behavior towards shareholders, customers, regulators, subordinates and colleagues? How should ethical standards be enforced?
  • What steps are needed to focus management on to profitability, stimulate innovation, foster the use of modern technology and build a more meritocratic culture that provides the best rewards to the best performers?

Overview of CCG Catalyst Methodology

Best run banks ensure that their strategies lead to significant and sustainable competitive advantage in many ways:

  • Strategies show clearly how, when and by how much the Bank will beat its competitors
  • The various elements of strategy are consistent and mutually supportive
  • Support strategies underpin business strategies and they do not contradict each other
  • All strategies are well understood and actively supported by the Board and senior executive

Our clients nearly always enjoy high profitability and solid growth. Their share prices grow faster and this increases the opportunities to acquire other banks or grow into new markets.

Overview of CCG Catalyst Methodology

Best run banks ensure that their strategies lead to significant and sustainable competitive advantage in many ways:

  • Strategies show clearly how, when and by how much the Bank will beat its competitors
  • The various elements of strategy are consistent and mutually supportive
  • Support strategies underpin business strategies and they do not contradict each other
  • All strategies are well understood and actively supported by the Board and senior executive

Our clients nearly always enjoy high profitability and solid growth. Their share prices grow faster and this increases the opportunities to acquire other banks or grow into new markets.

Our Team

A collaborative perspective guides CCG Catalyst relationships both internally and with clients. We take a long-term view in our relationships. We strive to build bonds founded on respect, caring, honesty, mutual support, and investment. We work together in a manner that is team-oriented, constructive, and challenging.