Many banks are turning their attention towards their branch networks in
the increasingly stiff competition for a bigger share of customers’
business, say Roy O’Neil and Chris Gentle.

Until now customers have preferred to queue for tellers to make
deposits, rather than trust ATMs. But new technology is helping to
allay their fears and free up tellers for more profitable transactions.
Keith Taylor of NCR reports.

Branches are back in fashion. But they look different. They are being
redesigned to provide better customer service, increase revenue and cut
costs, writes Michael Imeson.

Once touted as the next big thing, customer relationship management
failed to deliver. Now data warehousing is helping it to fulfil its
initial promise. Parveen Bansal explains how.

Multi-channel banking has become the norm for customers. Rekha Menon reports on developments in the four crucial areas of ATM, call centre, internet and bricks-and-mortar branches.

ATMs are customers’ primary point of contact with banks, making them
the perfect marketing channel. To maximise success, however, says Jeff
Lutz, information should be targeted.

Hungary’s OTP Bank is finally celebrating its profitable privatisation,
with a growing client base that enjoys a variety of sophisticated
access channels. Parveen Bansal talks to deputy CEO Csaba Lantos about the bank’s plans to be a major player in the region.

Parveen Bansal talks to Oracle’s Andrew Derrer about the new astrology that will lead to change in IT in the financial services industry. Banks that square up to these challenges will have positive horoscopes, he predicts.

Cost and business intelligence have been behind firms’ resistance to change legacy systems but, as Parveen Bansal reports, platform replacement may prove to be a cost-saving long-term option as new, cheaper alternatives are developed.