One of Ecuador’s leading banks, Produbanco, has refused to allow unfavourable national economic circumstances to get it down. By staying true to its customer-centred culture, the bank is successfully fulfilling its long-term strategies. CEO Ricardo Cuesta discusses how the bank’s commitment to pushing its objectives forward by utilizing technology, exploiting its own brand, honouring CSR goals has paid big dividends, and not just financial.
Every bank claims an important role in its community by providing a safe haven for deposits and offering credit; yet some go beyond that by supporting their communities through corporate social responsibility initiatives. Michelle Palmer-Keizer, General Manager, Group Marketing and Communications for Republic Bank in Trinidad and Tobago, outlines the four pillars of Republic’s Power to Make A Difference programme as well as other important outreaches.
Family-owned banks are a rarity today, but one, MoraBanc, can still be found in the tiny, mountainous European nation of Andorra. And it continues to serve its customers well, thanks in large part to the leadership of CEO Pedro González Grau, whose vision of a transformed business model has resulted during a short three-year time span in increased sustainability and, more importantly, customer trust and satisfaction.
Vietnam’s Asia Commercial Bank is enjoying a turn-around that most financial institutions would gladly embrace, posting one of its best performance years in 2016. The private bank’s success may lie in its practice of setting ambitious goals and objectives, then following through by using its competitive advantages to achieve them, providing the personal but innovative service that its varied customers demand.
Sweden’s Handelsbanken continues to buck the trend toward pooling bank operations into one centralized command post by living by its “church spire” vision—that is, that a bank’s reach should be limited to what can be seen from atop a church spire. Mats Ernborg, branch manager of Handelsbanken Strandvägen in Stockholm, discusses why this tried-and-true decentralization model works so effectively for his local customers.
Johan Thijs, CEO of Europe’s top bank-insurance group, KBC of Belgium, provides his insights into what has contributed to this financial giant’s success, evidenced by its strong profit track record. Nearly 20 years on, KBC has been in the advantageous position of being able to offer an unusually broad range of product and service choices to its customers, pushing it to the head of its class.
Europe is not the easiest place to conduct a profitable business these days, but you’d never know it looking at Monaco’s Compagnie Monégasque de Banque’s meteoric success. This private bank’s winning formula is simple in concept but not at all so in practice: placing its clients, and providing them with the highest standards of service, at the top of its guiding principles and values.
Tsesnabank, a prominent universal bank headquartered in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, is on an upward trajectory, and is reaping the profits and awards to prove it. Dauren Zhaksybek, chairman of the board of directors, shares his views on what Tsesnabank is getting just right while confronting the rapidly changing financial landscape in its home nation.
Investment-banking provides the fuel for corporate advancement, which is why Goren Capital has during its 20 years established itself as an essential partner to a variety of industries, from natural resources to media—not just in its home state of Israel but internationally. Goren Capital has risen to the top in many commercial areas, such as corporate and project finance, mergers and acquisitions, and financial restructurings.
Can a bank be a friend to its customers in their times of need? Thailand’s Krungthai Bank thinks so, and that is why it has stood behind all of its customers since its beginnings 50 years ago through thick and thin, including devastating natural disasters. State-owned KTB proves that banking customer service can indeed go that extra mile and still be profitable.