Electronic commerce and the marketing of Internet banking in the UK

Recent market research findings and financial services consultants' reports have signalled that electronic commerce will play an increasingly important role in consumers' future financial lives. This paper discusses such evidence and seeks to contextualise the debate on the future of banking through a discussion of consumers' financial behaviour, the UK Government's position and an analysis of UK financial providers' current marketing of Internet banking services to consumers.     

PROFILING: A STRATEGY FOR SUCCESSFUL VOLUNTEER RECRUITMENT IN CREDIT UNIONS

Credit unions are non‐profit financial organisations that provide financial services to their members. They are located in 97 countries across the world. All credit unions are governed by a volunteer board and many are reliant on volunteers for all their labour requirements. However, recruiting volunteers is a problem. The literature on recruitment issues in volunteering in general, suggests that the not‐for‐profit sector looks to the private sector for guidance on recruitment policies and approaches. One such approach which is considered in this paper is ‘market segmentation’ wherein the potential volunteer body is profiled to determine if an individual is likely to volunteer and if they are, to identify the type of role they are most likely to be attracted to. Prior literature on volunteering in non‐profit organisations suggests that certain types of individual (dominant individuals) are more likely to volunteer. This paper investigates whether this dominant status profile is evident amongst volunteers in credit unions in Northern Ireland (NI). The study finds that people with dominant characteristics are more likely to be attracted to volunteering to the board of directors and individuals who have less dominant traits overall should be offered more social/participative type roles. This information can be used by credit union governing boards for volunteer recruitment, retention and management purposes.     

E-business opportunities in financial services

Over many years, technological developments have enabled financial services products to be sold and administered via remote distribution channels. E-business is the latest channel whose potential is being explored by both traditional financial services players and new entrants alike. But, in their haste to ‘go online’, are organisations, new and old, falling into the ‘technology trap’ and ignoring the fundamentals underpinning financial services retailing and, perhaps, undermining some of their ‘segment-of-one’ strategies? This paper concludes that the key to successful e-financial services retailing is to take the nuances, attributes, techniques and skills that have accompanied financial services products in the physical world and reinvent them in an e-environment. Only by following this approach will e-business avoid being labelled as a solution looking for a problem. UK high street banks are continuing to extend the choice of channel through which customers can manage their money, eg e-banking. But it is suggested that channels such as e-banking potentially reduce the level of personal contact between bank and customer to the extent that a ‘virtual’ relationship develops. This paper concludes that, given the tendency towards ‘virtualisation’, it is inconceivable that bank–customer relationships will become any more intimate in the future. Indeed, a greater degree of personalisation in customer communication may be the very best that banks are able to offer.     

Strategic integration of customers and channels

The challenge for financial services organisations is to understand the impact that new channels will have on their existing branch network and customer base both now and in the future. This paper offers a practical approach to understanding the steps involved and introduces two new market-specific tools designed to aid financial services organisations in quantifying this demand. The paper concludes by looking at trends in channel management and channel integration with specific reference to the US asset management marketplace.     

The euro: The logic and inevitability of UK adoption

A competitive, smoothly functioning financial system is widely accepted as a prerequisite for realising an economy's growth potential. Modern growth theories have broadened their focus beyond the rate of interest as the means of equilibrating savings and investment to the contribution that efficiently operating financial markets make to underlying growth rates. The successful introduction of the euro marks an historic and significant step towards the achievement of a competitive, smoothly functioning pan-European integrated financial system. The elimination nominal currency risk for participants and reduced transaction costs are only the start of a continuing dynamic process that is steadily reducing asymmetries and increasing contestability. More generally a single currency and a smoothly functioning pan-European financial system are necessary counterparts to a single EU market in goods, services, labour and financial capital. This paper advances the argument that the integration of the EU's financial markets should be viewed as part of a longer-term process of economic and political integration in Europe. The UK is unable to stop this trend and UK business in general, and the UK financial markets in particular, would be wise to acknowledge these forces and to start to work with them. Marketing UK financial services with a view to UK membership of EMU would not only align marketing with the flow of history, but also it offers the prospects of a greater longer-term return.     

A ‘panoptical’ or ‘synoptical’ approach to monitoring performance? Local public services in England and the widening accountability gap

This article highlights how recent reforms to the auditing and assessment of local public services in England suggest there will be a shift from panoptical to ‘synoptical’ monitoring approaches. This is because the UK Government has abolished its centralised monitoring regime and instead required local authorities to publish a range of financial and performance datasets online, ostensibly so that citizens can hold organisations to account directly. However, the complexity and raw nature of these data, along with the sidelining of professional auditors, will result in most citizens being either unable or unwilling to undertake this task. As such, the proposed ‘synoptical’ approach will not materialise. Indeed, other legislative changes will mean that outsourcing firms effectively become the new, unaccountable observers of local public sector bodies within an enduring panoptical system. In many cases these companies will then assume responsibility for delivering the same services that they have assessed.     

Board structure and corporate risk taking in the UK financial sector

This paper examines the relationship between board structure and corporate risk taking in the UK financial sector. We show how the board size, board independence and combining the role of CEO and chairperson in boards may affect corporate risk taking in financial firms. Our sample is based on a panel dataset of all publicly listed firms in the UK financial sector, which includes banks, insurance, real estate and financial services companies over a ten year period (2003 − 2012). After controlling for the effects of endogeneity through the application of the dynamic panel generalized method of moments estimator, the findings of this study suggest that the presence of non-executive directors and powerful CEOs in corporate boards reduces corporate risk taking practices in financial firms. The negative relationship can be explained within the agency theory context, where managers are regarded as more risk averse because of the reputational and employment risk. An increased power concentration is therefore expected to enhance the risk aversion behaviour of directors. The findings however, do not show any significant effect of board size on corporate risk taking in financial firms. As this study covers recommendations of the UK Corporate Governance Code on the role of corporate boards in managing firms' risk, the empirical evidence could be useful for corporate governance regulation and policy making.     

Stakeholder engagement in internet financial reporting: The diffusion of XBRL in the UK

Internet financial reporting is now widespread with most medium and large companies in the developed world providing a wide variety of financial data online. However, much of this information mirrors the paper versions of financial reports, often with little attempt to enhance the decision usability of the data, providing a so called ‘first generation’ of online reporting (ICAEW, 2004). eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has been designed to provide a ‘second generation’ of online reporting, specifically to enhance the usability of the data. Documents rendered in XBRL are digitally-enabled so that it is easier for stakeholders to extract information directly into spreadsheets, or any other XBRL-enabled analysis software, without the need to re-key data thus providing significant improvements in information flows and enhancing inter-company comparability.XBRL consortia have spent more than 15 years promulgating the use of this technology within the business and government communities. However, despite their efforts XBRL has not become widely diffused, there is little stakeholder engagement and very few organisations have voluntarily adopted XBRL in practice.The results of a questionnaire survey in the UK indicate that awareness of XBRL, and second generation reporting more generally, resides in key champions but there is little diffusion outside this narrow set of stakeholders. Regulatory engagement seems to be the only impetus for diffusion and better channels of communication within stakeholder networks, such as between regulators, preparers, users and the XBRL community are needed. This paper suggests that currently the supply-push for XBRL is failing to produce effective use of this technology in the UK. Greater regulatory commitment is now needed to create an impetus for XBRL such as creating tools and making publicly available, accessible, repositories of XBRL data. Unless this happens, diffusion will not occur, and the demand-pull which is now needed will vanish and XBRL will fade and die.     

Developing an innovation orientation in financial services organisations

Innovation is the new business mantra, and recent studies have suggested that there is a strong positive relationship between innovation, market positioning strategy and performance. Given the nature of the competitive landscape and the innovation disruption environment in the financial services industry, an innovation orientation can be effective in identifying and executing growth opportunities for organisations. This paper discusses the dynamics of innovation in the financial services industry and delineates the relationship between innovation and market-related strategy. It then introduces an innovation model that can be used as a platform by financial services organisations. The model identifies three areas of consideration — context, culture, and execution — that will help organisations in this industry to develop an innovation orientation.     

DO INSTITUTIONAL INVESTORS IN THE UK ADOPT A DUAL STRATEGY FOR MANAGING FOREIGN EXCHANGE RISK?

In recent years, the gradual increase in international portfolio diversification within the UK institutional investment community has led to a growing need to manage foreign exchange (FX) risk. This paper reports on the findings of a postal questionnaire survey relating to FX risk management practices in UK institutional investment organisations. The findings demonstrate an increasing awareness of the FX risk management problem and indicate that UK investment institutions actively manage FX risk within their investment portfolios. The paper also focuses on the interesting question of whether UK institutional investors manage their own portfolio's FX risk, simultaneously concerning themselves with their investee companies’ FX risk management practices. Overall, the findings indicate that institutional investors adopt adual strategyfor managing FX risk; not only managing their own FX risk, but also requiring that their investee companies manage FX risk. There is also evidence to suggest that the institutional investors require their investee companies to disclose information relating to their FX risk management policies.     

改进商业银行居民理财服务的几点建议

随着社会经济的发展,我国居民可支配收入不断增加,同时对通胀预期的敏感性也在增加,银行原有的储蓄、汇兑等产品已不能满足居民的理财需求,居民个人理财业务具有较好的市场前景。针对商业银行理财业务现状,该文提出,商业银行应树立以客户为中心的理财服务核心观念,加强个人理财产品的设计与开发,并帮助客户把好投资风险关,以不断改进其理财业务的服务水平。     

The joint influence of financial risk perception and risk tolerance on individual investment decision‐making

The increasing complexity of the investment environment has accelerated the need for better quality financial advice services. Central to quality advice is advisers’ accurate assessment of their clients’ risk characteristics. Typically a client's risk characteristic is assessed by measuring the client's risk tolerance but not risk perception. To assess whether this practice fails to fully capture the client's risk profile, we explore both risk tolerance and risk perception in the investment decision‐making context. Using Australian online survey data of financial adviser clients (n = 364), our results reveal that risk tolerance influences risky‐asset allocation directly and indirectly through risk perception. These results thus clarify the joint role of both risk constructs in the investment making decision and highlight the importance of assessing both in the provision of client financial advice services. Importantly, our results validate a new comprehensive risk perception measure applicable in the financial advice context.     

Public service ethics in a changing world

The past 25 years have seen profound changes in the management and delivery of public services throughout the UK and elsewhere. Such developments, known as New Public Management (NPM) have taken hold, to a greater or lesser extent, in many OECD countries. These developments have had an impact upon the ethics of public service in a number of different ways. This paper explores four themes arising from these developments, i.e. (1) regulatory regimes and performance; (2) changing organisational structures, relationships and partnerships; (3) the public service ethos and (4) individual virtue.The themes are located within a complex set of mutual relationships involving individuals, organisations, government and society. Ethical behaviour will reflect a balance between these relationships, expressed in decisions taken within a ‘problem space’ characteristic of public services.     

Managing wealth: A new approach

This paper investigates how well ‘mid-worth’ individuals are served by the financial services industry in the UK. It defines and analyses the new phenomenon of ‘mid-worth’ individuals: the rapid growth in the number of people with significant liquid assets available for investment. It then considers how well these individuals are served by the most common investment products and concludes that most individuals are so poorly served that the result is seriously damaging to their long-term financial health. The paper investigates the main reasons for this: a lack of understanding of the relationship between risk and return, and what can only be described as a conspiracy of ‘mystification’, resulting in customers standing even less chance of understanding the risk-return relationship. The consequence of this is that investors end up paying far too much for ‘heavily packaged’ investment products with the result that they may find they have much less money available to them when they need it most—in old age. The research for this paper was sponsored by Close Wealth Management.     

Taking notice of risk culture – the regulator’s approach

Following the financial crisis and a series of mis-selling and ‘rigging’ scandals in the financial services, organisational culture, and particularly the risk culture of organisations, has come to be regarded as a key issue for both financial firms and their regulators This paper considers the extent to which regulatory published notices, ‘Final Notices’ (FNs), relating to breaches of the regulatory Handbook, are able to provide lessons, or pointers, in the development of ‘appropriate’ cultures. By undertaking a qualitative content analysis of all the FNs in 2012, we examine the extent to which FNs draw attention to issues of culture, and to the regulator’s analysis of the drivers of culture published as part of its treating customers fairly (TCF) initiative. The analysis finds that, although not easy to extract, there are important learning points in FNs relating to organisational culture, and in particular to the factors driving behaviours and outcomes that are signs of poor culture. This paper suggests that, whilst it may not be for a regulator to dictate firms’ culture, it could do much more to make use of the content of FNs as a learning tool for firms; particularly in the context of its cultural framework for TCF. This would support the ‘outcomes-based’ approach being espoused by the UK’s regulators.     

Strategic capital investment decision-making: A role for emergent analysis tools?: A study of practice in large UK manufacturing companies

The complexity surrounding strategic capital investments present challenges to managers charged with evaluating these projects. In particular over-reliance on financial appraisal tools is thought to bias decision-makers against undertaking strategic projects that are crucial to the development of business capability and innovation. In response to this concern, several emergent analysis tools have been advanced as means to integrate strategic and financial analyses of capital investment projects. This paper examines the use of both conventional financial analysis tools and selected emergent analysis approaches in the capital investment decision-making of large UK manufacturing companies.The findings update previous studies on the use of financial analysis tools, but also examine how their use varies between strategic and non-strategic investment projects and the extent to which emergent analysis tools are impacting decision-making practice. Little evidence emerges of integration between strategic and financial analysis approaches. Financial analysis techniques still dominate the appraisal of all categories of capital investment projects, while risk analysis approaches remain simplistic, even for complex strategic projects. Despite their noted potential for informing strategic investment decisions, the emergent analysis tools barely register in practice. The appraisal of capital projects seems to reflect a ‘simple is best’ philosophy and a commitment to the role of intuition and judgement in assessing how the strategic dimensions of capital investments connect with their financial outcomes.     

The payments revolution: The growth of person-to-person and ‘Generation Y’ payments services

This paper explores the development of person-to-person payments services, the impact this will have on further payments disintermediation across the financial services industry, and outlines possible opportunities and threats for UK financial services providers. The paper focuses on the P2P payments services and providers — including the leading banks — in the USA; the onset of online and P2P payments services in the UK; and the development of dedicated payments services for children and teenagers.     

金融服务、外资政策调整与企业出口——基于中国微观数据的验证

基于金融服务是制造业的重要中间品投入,本文研究我国金融服务业外资政策动态变化对下游企业出口行为的影响。理论上,金融服务业外资准入放松有助于提升金融服务中间品的技术和管理水平,直接效果是有助于提升出口企业使用金融服务的多样化和便捷化,促进企业出口。本文采用国家发改委公布的《外商投资产业指导目录》,首次度量了我国金融服务业外资准入政策的动态变化,并使用投入产出表将其与我国制造业企业数据进行上下游关联,有效检验了金融服务业外资政策调整对下游制造业企业出口的作用。结果表明:金融服务业外资政策调整放开有助于提高下游制造业企业出口倾向和收益,存在出口促进作用;管理效率高、出口非技术密集型及资本密集型产品的企业出口对金融服务业外资政策调整的反应更为灵敏;金融服务业外资政策调整放开通过缓解企业融资约束促进企业出口。本文研究显示我国金融服务业外资政策调整放开是推动我国贸易提升的一个重要支撑点。