J. Sifri Consulting Services: Strategic Planning for Banks

www.graincon.com

The pace of change in the market, bank's size, bank's complexity, increased competition and sophisticated telecommunications are some of the key reasons why strategic planning for banks has become essential.

JSCS management experts produce Strategic Plans for banks, in three distinctive, yet integrated phases, specifically:

a. Preparation of position papers for each department of the bank
b. Production of Situation Analysis Document
c. Production of Corporate Plan Document

The position papers cover the following areas:

·             Socio - Political Environment
·             Regulatory Environment
·             Taxation
·             Financial Services Sector/Competition
·             Past Performance of Operations (Long Term History - Trends)
·             Marketing Plan
·             Corporate Banking
·             Bad and Doubtful Section of Corporate Banking
·             Trade Finance Operations
·             Retail Banking
·             Consumer Finance
·             Bad and Doubtful Section of the Consumer Finance Section
·             Private Banking
·             Financial Institutions
·             Treasury/Foreign Exchange
·             Card Products
·             Securities - Custody / Sub-Custody
·             Automation and Technical Services
·             New products
·             Distribution Channels/Existing Network/ New   Branches/Closures/ATM/Internet
·             Distribution Channels - Proposed Acquisitions / Sales
·             Distribution Channels - External Branches
·             Financial Control
·             Property
·             Public Affairs
·             Human Resources
·             Profitability Analysis

Each Position paper normally contains a detailed analysis of the following:

·             Market
·             Competition
·             Products
·             Pricing/Profitability/Productivity
·             Communication / Promotion
·             Sales/Business Development
·             Services
·             Organisation / Systems
·             Strategy

The planning process consists of four phases:

·             Research;         Collection of relative data
·             Assessment;     Evaluation of the data collated
·              Completion;      Ensuring that the strategic imperatives are all consistent
·             Communication;Crucial to the success of the plan

Over the years, we learned that maximising the benefits of the planning process depends on a host of factors; commitment, ambition, flexibility, vision, follow-through, market intelligence and involvement. To direct the bank's total resources (aim of the banking strategic plan) towards achieving a predetermined set of imperatives over a considerable period of time, is a complex task, but a possible one.

The placement of quality imperatives is crucial to the success of the strategic plan; imperatives    such as "Revenues should rise faster than costs" or "The cost/income ratio should not exceed 60%" or "Net profits should rise faster than risk-weighted assets" are few examples of the way banks' strategic imperatives should look like.

J. Sifri Consulting Services

The Banking Consultants and Educators

Strategic Planning for Banks