International Private Bank

Major Money Center Bank, Asia Pacific Location

Situation

The private banking division of a major US Bank was confronted with extraordinarily high direct and allocated infrastructure costs for its Asia/Pacific operations. There was a lack of coordination between the geographically dispersed operations resulting in inefficient processing and multiple reviews inhibiting production. There appeared to be a misalignment between investment in the various areas and their growth potential. In addition, the bank was projecting a dramatic drop in revenue for the next fiscal year.

LoBue's audit revealed a lack of coordinated effort among the different sales units, poor delineation of functions between sales support and operations, overstaffing, over-controlled processes with double and triple reviews, oversized foreign exchange trading infrastructure, and a lack of MIS, particularly in the investment business.

Recommendations

Realign sales support and operations functions in order to better allocate sales capacity.
Formalizing sales targeting.
Segment and allocate client base.
Eliminate one-on-one reporting.
Streamline process flows.
Consolidate foreign exchange desks.
Redefine key investment products.
Institutionalize sales, product, and operating MIS.

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Results

All processes were reviewed and rationalized.
The realignment of investment and business potential in one area resulted in a 40% reduction of direct costs in that area.
Sales support and operations were realigned to free up capacity for additional sales.
Sales process was formalized with clearly communicated targets and goals.
Spans of control were increased to eliminate the numerous one on one reporting structures throughout the institution.
FTE savings of 20% was achieved.

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