“They are rushing toward their end, those who believe themselves so secure in their existence,” sings Loge at the end of the Prologue in Richard Wagner’s tetralogy *Der Ring des Nibelungen*. The gods and their retinue still had three operas’ worth of time to extricate themselves from the entanglements of their politics—driven by hubris and a refusal to heed advice—and to make way for a new world order. However, the majority of the characters in *The Ring* defend the old world order and prevent the transformation necessary for survival—and everything comes to an end in the final opera.
In any case, credit institutions do not have to suffer the same fate. However, they now face challenges of historic proportions. Never before in their more than 150-year history have savings banks, Volksbanks, and Raiffeisenbanks experienced, in a disruptive and simultaneous manner, near-zero interest rates coupled with a flat yield curve, a profound loss of confidence, a highly complex risk environment, significantly radical new competitors with zero marginal cost capabilities, the emergence of substitute competitors, a sharp increase in bureaucratic and compliance burdens, and entirely new business challenges posed by digitalization—“digital Darwinism” according to T. Kreutzer—and all of this amid excessively high personnel and operating costs.
Extensive branch closures, workforce reductions, and mergers alone cannot adequately solve the impending problems. Especially if the systemic framework conditions do not change abruptly in favor of the banking industry.
During his many years of professional and leadership experience at a major bank, a savings bank, and a global market leader in manufacturing, Prof. Renker has developed, transformed, and implemented business concepts, and has shared his insights in presentations as the head of banking conferences for EUROFORUM and Handelsblatt.
Now, given the severity of the challenges facing the banking industry, he highlights the opportunities within this apparent crisis in a recent publication titled “The Future of Credit Institutions—It All Depends on the Business Model” ( see the IFMEpaper, available at Qucosa of the SLUB, among other sources). The restructuring of credit institutions appears urgently necessary, but also feasible, as long as the window for transforming business models remains open. However, at all levels of banking business models, effective and efficient solutions must be sought quickly—even to the point of total transformation through an integrative change management process.
Further information: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-186381
Contact:
Faculty of Business Administration and Engineering Management
Prof. Dr. Clemens Renker
Email: c.renker@hszg.de