Real Results

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.

LoBues 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.

LoBue Recommendation

• 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.

Real 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.