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In the mid-1990s, market demands for around-the-clock (24/7) banking and financial transacting began to converge with advances in internet-based technologies. This confluence of forces gave rise to the birth of internet banking. Building upon the relevant literature, this paper aims to develop a set of propositions to address the following questions: what brand strategy or strategies were used at the birth of internet banking roughly 25 years ago? In the years since then, have merger and acquisition transactions involving internet or “direct” banking businesses only come to fruition where the direct bank was previously under a specific brand strategy? And finally, where there have been changes in internet banking brand strategy, have these invariably been in the ultimate direction of one particular brand strategy?

Because of the exploratory nature of the research question, this paper uses a case study examination as the research approach. In addition to gaining deeper insight into issues involving internet bank branding as these actually existed, this paper aims to propose preliminary and tentative conclusions that can later be tested empirically with larger sample size. The case studies specifically examine German commercial banks with direct bank businesses.

In the examination of the German commercial banks, this paper finds that their internet banking activities some 25 years ago were, in fact, never launched using an umbrella brand strategy but rather with a combined brand strategy or multi-brand strategy. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions involving internet-based direct banks were only consummated where the direct bank had previously been operated by the parent bank using a multi-brand strategy. Where the brand strategies of internet-based direct banks have been changed by their parent banks, this has invariably been in the direction of an umbrella brand strategy.

Within the marketing and banking literature, there are no in-depth examinations of internet banking brand strategies to be found. This paper, in addressing this research topic, marks the first full survey of German commercial banks with internet-based direct banking businesses. This survey, moreover, examines branding not only at the time that internet-based direct banks were first established starting in 1994 but also the subsequent development of internet banking brand strategies to the present day.

If, as everybody agrees now, business should be about meeting customers’ needs, it makes sense to involve customers as we create strategy. But here lies a problem. Ordinary market research techniques are fine for finding out what customers think about what already exists. They are much less good at helping us uncover customers’ attitudes to what might be, or their ideas about what should be.

This paper examines the strategies and financial ratios of the largest U.S. and European banks. Why are bank profitability ratios in the U.S. and U.K. vastly superior to those in Germany and Switzerland? Is this related to accounting, tax, economic, or regulatory differences, uses of funds, or management quality?

Prioritizing should be a company’s No. 1 virtue. In the absence of priority, companies flounder, and employees become distracted. This inevitably leads to missed deadlines, over‐extended budgets, and a resulting output different from what was originally intended. This is excruciatingly evident when implementing an information technology (IT) strategy. Few industries can compete with the heap of wasteful, incomplete, and underutilized projects IT has amassed over the past two decades. The core of the problem is not the technology, but a failure clearly to define priorities at all levels in a company.

This guide is compiled in order that banks may see the extent of the overall problem of fraud and money laundering in documentary credit transactions. It also contains advice on how banks and bankers may protect themselves and their staff from the consequences of fraudulent attacks against the system.

The purpose of this paper is to look at the past development and potential of the Rhenish capitalist governance “model”. The origins and nature of the model are to be discussed. The aim is to focus on its specific role within the transformation processes of Central‐Eastern European economies. East‐Central Europe is where, it is contended, Rhineland capitalism's future will be decided.

Using a survey questionnaire, customers' perceptions of bank governance and practice in the Polish‐German city of Zgorzelec‐Görlitz are explored. The experience of Dresdner Bank is stressed and the fact that the local people not long before lived under a Socialist regime. A control group in London is used to ascertain the presence of German management traditions as opposed to Anglo‐American approaches to management in the context of retail bank markets. In total there were 210 participants in the survey (all equally divided between the three cities).

German and Polish respondents mostly rejected co‐determination and favored top‐down management. Germans seem to make trust and loyalty a major factor in their retail banking decisions while Polish seemed more open to American style marketing. The findings support the hypothesis about the long‐term viability of Rhinish capitalism.

The paper ascertains that the presence of German management traditions as opposed to Anglo‐American approaches to management in the context of retail bank markets in a border region is dominant.

Despite a raft of important qualitative reservations and at best poor empirical evidence, the argument that, in case of business problems, large banks are more likely to be bailed out by government intervention than smaller banks (‘too big to fail’) cannot be dismissed entirely. The question, though, is whether or to what extent this has any implications for competition or the stability of the banking system. Under realistic assumptions, especially with respect to incentives for bank management and shareholders, too big to fail hardly leads to excessive risk taking by large banks. The impact of too big to fail on a bank's rating and, accordingly, its refinancing conditions is only marginal, as a breakdown of the various rating components clearly documents. This suggests that the effects on competition of too big to fail come nowhere close to the refinancing advantages enjoyed by public sector banks in Germany. The refinancing advantage of the Landesbanken afforded by state guarantees (Anstaltslast and Gewährtragerhäftung) comes to as much as 50 basis points. Given the continual narrowing of lending margins, an advantage on this scale plays a decisive role in competition. Too big to fail has substantial implications for the architecture of banking supervision. Suitable institutional arrangements need to be created in order to deal with large banks in case of a, potentially systemic, crisis. With banking becoming increasingly global and the number of cross‐border mergers on the rise, this requires solutions at an international, if not at a global, level. Implementing the concept of a European Liko‐Bank, as suggested by the Bundesbank, will require that the supervisory authorities and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) first create appropriate public sector counterparts.

Discusses the changes in European banking since the introduction of the euro, providing statistics on mergers and acquisitions (mostly domestic) and their effects on assets both inside and outside the eurozone. Considers the factors which make cross‐border mergers less attractive, the effect of consolidation on costs, and the impact of the euro on foreign exchange earnings, debt markets and cash management systems. Concludes that although banks are becoming more competitive with each other and with other financial services companies, national barriers to further integration of the financial services market remain.

Considers the likely effects of EMU and the introduction of the euro on the “fragmented” European banking industry. Recognizes that transition to the euro will be expensive in terms of equipment, training, customer care etc.; and that some new products and services will be demanded (e.g. cross‐border cash management systems, euro‐denominated bonds etc.) while others will decline (e.g. foreign exchange hedging, commercial loans etc.). Refers to US experience to identify growth opportunities and discusses the current and future impact of increased competitition in the new market; and strategies for surviving it.

As market capitalism celebrates its first decade of undisputed hegemony its oldest barometer — the US stock market's Dow Jones Industrial Average — has undergone one of the rare revisions of its constituent companies. In reseating the top table of corporate America it aims to remain representative of the evolving US economy.