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The image that a bank has in the consumer's mind is the most important type of branding that it can offer and should be the central component within any marketing strategy. Consumer attitudes have been modified by two principal factors — the wider range of services offered means that banks are in the public eye more often, and have changed perceptions about money and financial institutions, and the process of social change is contributing to changed perceptions and expectations from service organisations. There are four interconnecting aspects in developing a corporate image that will make the bank more recognisable and stronger and communicate with the public — corporate identity, public relations, advertising and delivery systems (promotion).

As the retail banking market becomes more price competitive in terms of the products and services offered and as the introduction of new technologically based products breaks down the traditional homogeneity of bank products, so banks must necessarily move towards a position where they either adopt largely explicit and rational pricing policies, or alternatively introduce policies that both reinforce customer loyalty and obtain a substantial long‐term return from the totality of the relationship with the customer. In recognising and analysing this problem, the major implications for banks′ cost structures, and the way in which they price their products and organise their business activities are assessed.

Ancillary services as a generic product‐service group represent a key area for growth in the retail banking sector provided their introduction is low and concurrent with culture change within the sector. Ancillary services will absorb surplus staff for marketing purposes; the branch network will evolve towards a newer retailing‐based role, and the selling of integrated packages of services will retain customer contact and reinforce customer loyalty. These services can also boost fee earning and incremental profit, increasing market strength. Changing product design, training, infrastructure (branch design), and management control will aid the shift of the retailing structure towards ancillary services. However, these must not be seen to provide cosmetic solutions to banks' deeper problems, and the strategy should not provide a service far removed from existing operations.

Outlines previous research on the efficiency of financial institutions and builds on an earlier study of the relative efficiency of 190 UK bank branches by the authors to determine their size efficiency relationship and their determinants of relative inefficiency. Explains the data envelopment (DEA) method used, the data set and the input/output configuration; and summarizes the results of the previous study. Shows that size is related to efficiency and suggests that the pattern is an asymmetric U‐shaped average cost curve, with an optimum branch size of ine staff and a lending range of £3.0‐£5.25 million. Analyses the sources of scale and technical inefficiency in an individual branch and across the sample to show that diversification reduces efficiency while use of technology and management control improves it. Concludes that DEA can provide the means to raise efficiency, reduce cost income ratios and increase profitability.

Reports on empirical survey of six major players in the house mortgage market and determines elements of customer service that are indicative of both good and bad practice. Compares and contrasts the customer service of the financial institutions comprising the sample. Concludes by identifying a number of positive initiatives in the market and suggests some development needs which would increase overall levels of service in the market.

The paper uses a questionnaire and a theoretical model of bank‐customer interaction preferences as the basis for examining the perceptions of retail bank customers regarding the use of remote delivery channels and the extent to which they still value traditional branch‐based face‐to‐face interactions. The empirical evidence suggests that despite the increase in remote banking, retail bank customers still place significantly greater emphasis on face‐to‐face contact. The implications of this finding are that if banks want to encourage widespread customer adoption of remote banking they must better understand customer attitudes towards alternative delivery channels and use this information to educate their customers on the tangible service benefits which emanate from remote delivery.

The success of the syndicated loans market over the past 15 years has been unmitigated due largely to its flexibility in raising large amounts of credit at very short notice for a wide range of borrowers. This flexibility is based on close personal contacts between major participating banks, and clear guidelines within international banks regarding acceptable minimum spreads and exposure to major borrowers. Syndicated lending has enabled banks to satisfy unprecedented levels of credit demand while managing a diversified loan portfolio. However, there is a risk of potential loss to banks through lending to borrowers with whom they have no direct contact.

Having finally embraced the concept of marketing, banks enter the new millennium in a increasingly competitive and fragmented marketplace, consisting of financially literate consumers and direct low cost competition from recognised high street brand names. As customers increasingly interact with banks through remote technological channels (e.g. phone, Internet, etc.) the implications for bank‐customer relationships are important. This paper, accordingly, reports on an international research study which explored the perceptions of senior bankers in the UK, Sweden and the USA with regard to the use of the Internet as a relationship marketing tool. There was unanimous agreement that the Internet had a key role to play in relationship management but there was far less agreement about the rates of customer adoption and the extent to which this could or should be influenced by bank strategies.

The purpose of the paper is to explain how and why strategic alliances, in the form of clubs and consortiums, played an important role in the internationalisation of banks.

A longitudinal analysis, commencing in 1964 with the emergence of the Eurocurrency market and culminating with the creation of the European single market in the early 1990s, is used to provide an insight into the creation of clubs and consortium banks. The authors adopt the Lawson realist methodology and identify broad structural changes in the markets in which banks operate, i.e. “mechanisms” and relate these to major trends, i.e. “events” such as the creation of strategic alliances.

It is generally recognised that banks became international in response to the globalisation strategies of their multinational customers. However, the paper reveals that banks were also internationalising in response to structural changes in the financial services markets.

A criticism of the Lawson methodology is that it is not always possible to discern causal linkages between mechanisms and events. This explains why research of this kind is typically retrospective because it is only with the benefit of hindsight that the causal linkages can be fully understood.

The study provides new insights into the emergence of international banking and the role of clubs and consortiums in this process.

London Clearing Banks (LCBs) are currently endeavouring to improve their overall branch delivery system by adopting strategies which promote branches as marketing centres. This approach is necessary because of the substantial inherent disadvantages associated with the branch network. Branches are expensive and as distribution channels they are less than efficient. This inefficiency stems from the fact that customers need to be “induced” into them and also because branches are relatively inflexible and difficult to adapt to changing market conditions. As a consequence the strategies are identified and discussed, which are currently being implemented by banks in an endeavour simultaneously to improve both customer satisfaction and the efficiency of branch networks by making them more responsive to the needs of the market.