The more general aspects of the economic-financial crisis gripping the country and the need for new capital required of many large Italian banks by the European authorities for greater systemic stability leave in the background the critical issues that also affect a large part of the minor banking system, made up of CCBs, small cooperative banks, joint stock company banks, including those savings banks that are not part of groups. For many of these, the situation has revealed the imbalances produced in years of growth in intermediated volumes and operating structures (branches and staff) that are excessive compared to the potential of the local reference markets. There are also shortcomings in governance, such as conflicts of interest, waste, policies of grandeur, conduct inspired by the "practice of man alone in command", too slow generational turnover, insufficient controls, concentration of risks, especially in the real estate sector. Even the Supervisory Authorities have made the sanctioning actions, which mainly affect organizational and control insufficiencies, much more numerous and heavy than in the past, implicitly recognizing that the dysfunctions are not all the result of the crisis.
What are the strategic-management levers available? Are they autonomously manoeuvrable by individual banking companies or do we have to think of ways of the banking business to be profoundly renewed in terms of business models and operating processes? Are there players who can play a role in relaunching the small banking system? The answers to the aforementioned critical issues must be directed to:
A) promote new services to satisfy the broader and more diverse needs expressed by the typical customers of local banks, for example with a more direct presence in payment services, for which, also due to recent government interventions on the traceability of cash, interesting prospects are opening up, focusing on efficiency and security of transactions;
B) introduce process innovations, fully automating even the most routine ones, with effects on the productivity of the factors used: an example is represented by the introduction of digitized processes for the complete elimination of paper as a physical support for administrative documentation (think of the effects on contracts and the myriad of operations at the counter, including the conservation of archives).
C) assume a more decisive attitude towards outsourcing, which is, at the moment, the only organizational form to carry out the typical activities of a small bankrelying on a functional, safe operating machine, with the ability to update technology in the medium term (management of ICT services integrated with back office management processes, based on high reliability and high IT security); outsourcers can also be entrusted with training, internal audits, management consultancy;
D) build a model of territorial supervision, through a network ready to deal with the nascent business networks, possibly also by promoting the establishment of new operators such as payment institutions, EMI, microcredit companies, trust companies, local bad banks, closed-end funds).
Each of these fields of intervention requires actions, sometimes of greater complexity, sometimes readily usable, in any case to be undertaken with speed and determination, also by stimulating a new corporate governance.
All of the foregoing implies the elaboration of a new strategic vision also in terms of optimal dimensions of the territorial configuration of the minor bank which could be identified in the regional dimension, with perceptible economies of scale and scope. From the relationships between bank networks and business networks, renewed ways of customer relations can ultimately arise, in a medium-long term scenario. And since also the business networks will have to commit themselves to process innovations and will need to rely on more advanced infrastructures than the current ones (IT, management consultancy, personnel training, etc.), the outsourcers will not only be the indispensable managers of the operating machine of the minor bank, but they could also become managers of small and medium-sized banks business. These operators will have an increasingly important role in the renewal of the local business model compared to how we have known it up to now, not without remembering that determination and courage are indispensable ingredients for any change, especially when the results of a crisis such as the one we are going through are looming.
(The full text of the article can be found at www.cabel.it)
