The identity profile and the levers of innovation. These years of crisis have not spared, nor could it have been otherwise, local banks, highlighting certain critical issues, which have been known for some time. Among other things, last September 25 was dedicated to them on FIRSTonline an interesting contribution (“Local or local bank: reality or illusion?”) by Daniele Corsini, CEO of Cabel Holding Spa, a network of local banks, for decades at the forefront of offering outsourcing services with high added value, aimed at to a diverse range of local banks. However, it would be at least ungenerous to deny the fundamental contribution that local banks have made in these years of crisis to the stability of our country's production system, guaranteeing access to credit to the myriad of SMEs that represent the backbone of our economy.
And let not escape, in this regard, the social value of this attitude, moreover consistent with the popular and cooperative matrix of the great majority of local banks. In the most acute period of the crisis (2008 - 2011) the loans of minor banks (in the vast majority, local banks) increased by over 20%, double compared to the rest of the system, even if it is true that the bad debts of the former recorded a markedly more marked growth. he evolution of our banking system, somewhat accelerated by the crisis, requires local banks to pay greater attention to overcoming the critical issues common to the rest of the system, largely originating from the excessive financial leverage of the large banks and the poor asset quality of the latter.
In recent years, these critical issues have given rise to some cases of corporate crisis, even emphasized in a media perspective which, however, have never taken on a systemic character, nor have they required interventions by the State and taxpayers. However, it is on the great drivers of change that the challenge of the role of local banks is being played out. It is a challenge of enormous importance, perhaps not adequately evaluated and understood due to the repercussions it can have on a large part of the production system and on the country's social fabric itself.
The improvement of productivity levels and technical-operational efficiency also through the high automation of processes, the use of the network in the offer of services, the expansion of their range through outsourcing models of the "participatory" type, constitute a necessity essential to sustain the competitive challenge. But, once again, in my opinion, it is on the terrain of enhancing the identity profile and the distinctive elements of the local bank that the game is played. Today the validity of a distribution model based on a large and expensive network of branches is under discussion. International comparisons tell us that the banking density of our country is higher than the European average.
The sale prices of the branches have fallen significantly in recent years and often there is even a lack of potential buyers. Moreover, the growing development of internet banking has led and will increasingly lead in the future to a reduction in cash transactions. All of this, however, also entails a substantial change in the quality of the customer relationship, which will tend to be more subtle and rarefied, while competition between banks will be increasingly focused on the "price" lever with the consequent reduction, in the medium term, of unit margins. In this context, local banks can play a fundamental card by focusing precisely on the centrality of the customer relationship, not reduced to mere virtual interaction, but qualified by personal knowledge of the customer, his history, his social and family context, his effective needs .
So that internet banking takes the form of a sort of "commodity" available to customers. While it is from the ability to listen, interpret and satisfy complex needs that value is extracted for both parties in the relationship: customer and bank From this point of view we can say that the local bank has all the necessary prerequisites to successfully play the game. In a nutshell: cognitive advantage and protection of the territory. However, this is not a sufficient condition for successfully facing a competitive challenge that concerns fundamental elements of "quality" in market positioning and customer relations.3 Consulting (for families and businesses) , asset management, private banking, constitute a range of high value-added services with respect to which local banks sometimes lag behind the rest of the system and which, moreover, constitute precisely the supporting elements for qualifying and developing a relationship that is already based on solid foundations of mutual knowledge and trust. Incidentally, it is almost trivial to note that developing an existing relationship is much simpler and cheaper than acquiring new customers.
Too often local banks are satisfied, aware or not, with "sharecropping" customers; customers who maintain a close relationship with the local bank, but limited to traditional banking services (although, perhaps, offered in an advanced way), direct deposit products and credit. For everything else (financial advice and asset management, management of financial and insurance risks, issues related to intergenerational transfers, etc.) too often the customer turns to other intermediaries (branches of large banks, private banking structures , financial advisors), perhaps more sales-oriented than listening and proposing. With the risk that, in the long run, these intermediaries will be able to acquire all relationships, replacing the local bank even in the range of more traditional products and services.
But what should be the most suitable approach and organizational model so that the local bank can intercept and satisfy the globality of customer needs, configuring itself as a real "Haus Bank"? On the one hand there are the product companies (which offer mutual funds, sicavs, asset management, private equity funds, insurance products, etc.), comparable to pharmacies, from which the local bank can buy the "active ingredients" necessary for therapy. On the other hand, there is the local bank which requires:
– in-depth knowledge of these "active ingredients" and their effects, including side effects (risks);
– knowledge of the "clinical history" and of the actual needs of the "patient"/client, even beyond what the same is able to manifest (due, for example, to external conditioning, the habit of practicing ' "self-medication", an incorrect assessment of the symptoms, etc…);
- the consequent formulation of the "diagnosis"; - the definition of the mix of "active ingredients" (therapies) and its monitoring over time.
This model, in my opinion, has the following advantages:
– guarantees against any conflict of interest, keeping the function of the pharmacist/product company separate from that of the therapist/local bank;
– enhances the relationship capacity of the local bank and its "cognitive advantage";
– does not require significant fixed investments, and does not involve significant changes in the organizational structure.
A fundamental success factor is instead represented by the training activity, aimed at developing the professional figures who directly manage the customer relationship. On an organizational level, instead of introducing dedicated structures, it seems preferable to focus on growth "from below" according to a model aimed at creating a widespread culture and, therefore, participation and motivation in branch personnel, qualifying the market positioning of entire bank and the value, not only economic, of the relationship of trust with customers.
