13

CRM in investment banking and

financial markets
Genevieve Findlay, Peter Mathias, Paris de LEtraz and Merlin Stone
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we discuss just a few of the considerations involved in implementing CRM
in investment banking or financial markets. Although nearly all of the rest of this book
focuses on retail financial services, we thought it appropriate to cover briefly some aspects
of a research programme focusing on investment banking and financial markets CRM that
was being undertaken at IBM at the time of writing this book.
In the past few years, insurers and retail banks have made most of the running in CRM.
Increased competition and shrinking margins have forced them to deploy CRM strategies
and technologies in order to respond to the needs of shareholders and clients. More
recently, investment banks have begun to realize the intrinsic value of CRM. The principles
of CRM hold true for this sector. Just because investment banking is a business-to-business
application does not take away the fact that recognition of the client is still key for CRM
success. However, most of CRM in investment banking is still work in progress. It is a
missed opportunity since it offers banks a chance to rethink their fundamental approach to
client management, to redesign their coverage strategies and to use technology to bring this
about.
Better client management is no longer optional. In nearly all business-to-business
markets in which clients are as large as, or as in this case, often much larger than their
suppliers, the latter must respond quickly to pressures from their clients to improve client
management processes and systems. Banks can no longer rely on an information advantage
over clients. Clients are better informed than ever and are hence more discriminating.
Awareness of the full spectrum of what can be offered (and at what price) leads to increased
needs and more stringent demands but lower brand loyalty. To keep their clients, banks
need to manage relationships with them better, for mutual advantage. Even if banks them-
selves are not working hard to manage clients better, through analysis, segmentation,
design and delivery of the proposition, and tracking performance, clients themselves are
often focusing on how to manage their suppliers to their own advantage. In particular,
leading-edge clients are concentrating their business with fewer stronger suppliers that
seem likely to provide them with a cost, capital and competitive advantage for their own
marketplace.
THE CRM CHALLENGE
Corporate investment banks differ from retail banks in that a few large clients have a big
impact on the banks business performance. This means that CRM techniques will only
help investment banks if they improve the banks ability to:
1. select and then manage the right client set (coverage);
2. determine which products and services should be sold to which client, profitably, and
then help the bank implement this sales plan (profit planning and implementation);
3. reduce the cost of coverage, in particular by improving the productivity of sales profes-
sionals covering those with small wallets, while maintaining quality of coverage (one
day the wallets may be big!);
4. coordinate the multi-product, multi-country relationship in real time.
Coverage is an area of great weakness for many investment banks. They rely on the instinct
and energy of their sales and research people to determine which clients to focus upon and
then to win business from them. This approach which has worked for many years is now
unsustainable. The marketplace is changing. Margins are constantly being squeezed.
Consolidation of the sector and better information have increased transparency of internal
operations. Clients expectations about levels of service and cost-effectiveness are rising all
the time.
Investment banking is characterized by two very different types of relationships with
clients, as follows:
CRM in investment banking and financial markets I 211
Share of mind relationships focus the bank on doing a few large high-impact transactions
for the client. While these deals are often opportunistic, they require intense investment
of time by key people in the bank so as to build strong and differentiated relationships
with key decision makers. The aim is to build access and influence with the right clients
within the client organization before the deal.
Share of wallet relationships involve very large-scale coordination of many people, each of
whom is operating separately from the others. As banks have merged and clients have
become larger (also because of mergers on their side of the market) the scope and
complexity of these relationships have increased. The challenge for banks is to
transform individual relationships into a broader institutional relationship.
There are many variations on these two types of relationship, and each of the businesses
debt, equity, asset management and banking have a different view of this.
Acentral need for client management is to align objectives across products and functions.
This is hard to do. Most firms find it hard to agree a process to make trade-offs between
differing product, functional and geographic objectives.
Of course, CRM is not the only requirement. Two of the main determinants of business
success in investment banking are client satisfaction and product quality. We believe that
these two variables account for well over 90 per cent of the differences in financial results
over time. CRM plays a key role but by itself only makes a marginal difference. When
used to increase client satisfaction its effect is much greater. When used to make sure clients
have access to the right products at the right time, its effect is greater still. However, the
quality of people and the discipline with which they are managed and measured, the
quality of products, the infrastructure of the bank all these have much larger impact on
financial performance.
WHAT CLIENTS WANT FROM THEIR BANKS
For CRM to work, banks must have a very clear view of what their clients want from them.
Four of the most important needs of clients are:
1. cost reductions and efficiencies in services delivered;
2. better control and transparency resulting in accountability for delivering results;
3. greater convenience in having to deal with fewer banks;
4. banks knowing the needs of clients intimately, so that the latter are offered the right
products, at the right time and the right price, with appropriate associated service.
212 I Sector situation
CORE PROVIDERS
As clients have merged and consolidated, they have come under increasing pressure from
their shareholders to deliver higher returns. As a result, clients seek greater efficiencies
from banks they regard as their core providers of services. Clients want fewer banks that
will help them achieve these new levels of performance while reducing their costs and
risks. By concentrating their business with fewer banks, clients hope to achieve higher
degrees of control over their banks, greater accountability for results and improved trans-
parency in financial terms. They want to see new levels of bank commitment associated
with this privileged core relationship position.
Clients require a tight linkage between all the following variables:
long-term commitment and leading market position;
geographic and product spread;
ability to provide global coverage and delivery.
Most clients classify banks on the basis of ability to deliver on certain criteria, in particular:
1) long-term ability to deliver results; 2) impact on the clients performance.
Clients are concerned that many banks may not survive todays mergers and consolida-
tions. Developing and sustaining solid working relationships requires an investment on the
part of the client. Increasingly, clients are looking to make a strategic choice of core providers,
rather than just making opportunistic and tactical decisions. They want to be supplied by
banks for whom they are core clients and for whom their business is a core business. They
expect a consistent, long-term commitment to market leadership. For example, clients
involved in mergers or acquisitions need to extract value from these mergers or acquisitions
by breaking down product and geographic boundaries, and this requires coordinated
coverage from their core service providers. Global clients require consistent product delivery
across geographies. The ability of the bank to execute a meaningful role in terms of
geographic presence and product footprint is critical to being a core provider. Finally, in order
for this to be effective the bank must provide the level of coverage and delivery infrastructure
so as to make the whole process efficient, accountable and transparent to the client.
More demanding expectations of core providers are forcing clients to take coverage
issues more seriously. They are beginning to evaluate banks more critically, on the basis of
their ability to provide them with this necessary increased level of commitment and
coverage. Just as banks cover many of their strategic clients using client service teams as
part of key account management programmes, many clients are creating team coverage
models for relating to their banks more efficiently. Large clients are increasingly reorgan-
izing themselves so as to achieve performance enhancements and lower costs. There is a
direct correlation between their ability to achieve these performance benefits and their
success in managing and integrating with their banks more efficiently.
CRM in investment banking and financial markets I 213
At many clients today, all team members within the buying organization, regardless of
location, require and expect the same high standard of service from internal resources as
well as from their external providers. The new internal structures of many global clients
involve matrix organizations with a number of people having more than one reporting line
and a number of functions having global and local activities. If the 10 people at the bank
covering a particular client are not organized and aligned so that they work jointly on the
coverage of that client, then it will be apparent to the client. Clients want to know:
how client coverage officers are assigned to them;
how many clients they cover;
how often they are reassigned;
who will assure them of consistency of service.
Client coverage discipline at banks has moved from being an internal efficiency consider-
ation to being driven by their top-tier clients. As a result, many banks are entering a phase
of change, in which their understanding, shared knowledge and focused communication
will be significant factors in the share of wallet they win. Banks that can deliver these effi-
ciencies will command relationship premiums that will differentiate them from their peers
in terms of status as well as profitability. The relationship premium is based on the banks
ability to provide connectivity, communication and client focus.
Acore providers primary objective is to help its client achieve its strategic goals. Once a
bank becomes a core provider, it must define a strategy for maintaining its position as well
as for gradually increasing its share of the strategic clients wallet over time. As a core
provider, a bank is permissioned by the client to present its case for adding value across a
range of products, geographies and needs. Clients are optimizers and they know what a
bank is good at. Banks must build a role for themselves that maximizes exploitation of
their capabilities. The banks objective is to increase the level of permissioning to the point
where it has influence over the buying behaviour. As a core provider the client feels that the
bank is adding value. It has been permissioned to provide a service or product of which it
is perceived to be an excellent provider. So, it is the banks challenge to position itself strate-
gically in the mind of the client and maximize its share of the clients wallet. As it increases
its level of permissioning its relationship becomes more important to the client and its edge
against its competitors grows.
To maximize this benefit a bank must:
align product and coverage functions;
define overall objectives for the client;
measure performance against objectives;
continuously validate strategy with the client.
214 I Sector situation
Clients want core providers that will help them achieve their strategic goals. They need to
be convinced of that. The clients perception of the deliverables and their benefits/value
must be very clear. They want to be involved in shaping the deliverables. They want the
provider to have formalized and definable objectives that will translate into mutually
agreed deliverables. Below is an example request for information (RFI) from a global client.
The information is intended to help the communication between the two parties to be more
efficient as well as to convince the client of the banks degree of commitment. It would typi-
cally be sent with an organization chart describing client roles and responsibilities by
product and location so that the bank knows the key decision makers as well as those that
may require their services or products.
Sample checklist of an RFI from a global client to a bank
Overview
Do you categorize your clients into tiers? Explain.
Is there a process by which you assign the importance of a clients relationship?
Do you have any proprietary information that you can share with us periodically that
could benefit our relationship?
How do you rate yourself versus your competitors? Strengths? Weaknesses?
Coverage
Who is the main contact person on the relationship? List each member of the client
service team by role and responsibility.
What access will we have to senior management?
What do you expect to achieve from a core relationship with our firm?
What business do you do with us by product, location (aggregates)?
Are you prepared to work with us on a research project on a success basis?
What is your rationale for assigning each member of the coverage team?
How often are members reassigned?
How do you compensate them?
Commitment
What are your product or service areas of greatest commitment? List the individuals
and relevant expertise.
Do you know our strategic goals? How can you demonstrate your commitment to our
strategic goals?
CRM in investment banking and financial markets I 215
Objectives
What are your critical account objectives for this year with us?
What is your estimated present share of wallet with us by product or service?
What would you like it to be by product or service?
NON-CORE PROVIDERS
Being a core provider is increasingly imposing levels of client commitment that may make
the economic feasibility of the relationship less attractive. Increasingly, clients will be
willing to remove providers from their top-tier lists if they are unable to meet these chal-
lenges with more than the traditional lip-service. For those left out, this will mean that their
relationships and role will increasingly come under pressure from top-tier providers who
can provide a similar product or service.
Clients expect from their non-core providers: 1) focus and excellence in a narrow product
set; 2) superior execution, pricing and value. In order to remain competitive, non-core
providers need to achieve the following:
lower cost of coverage than their competition;
very competitive pricing;
high share of wallet in a narrow product set;
opportunistic cross-selling from areas of product strength.
THE TECHNOLOGY TRAP
To support core-provider status, IT systems must support a client-centric approach to infor-
mation. They need to allow the bank to create virtual client service teams providing their
members with access to all relevant client information across products and geographies. To
do this, they need to:
connect existing CRM systems and legacy systems efficiently so that all information
around the client can be shared securely between client service team members;
allow client service team members to engage in CRM without leaving their e-mail
systems;
be very cost-effective; achieving relationship premiums in current market conditions
must be done without spending millions on CRM.
216 I Sector situation
Many investment banks have already attempted to implement CRM. This usually involves
either the IT division anticipating a requirement for a system and supplying what it thinks
will be the answer, or the request to implement CRM being made by the business with a
broad idea as to what should be delivered but with little idea as to how to make it work
once implemented.
We regard both of these approaches as poor practice and likely to lead to failure as has
indeed been the case with most CRM initiatives in financial services markets of any kind.
Putting the technology at the heart of CRM strategy is problematic for a number of reasons,
listed below.
Trying to solve CRM issues with technology
CRM technology is complex to build. It requires different systems to work in harmony to
deliver the right information at the right time to the right people. In addition to this, it needs
to be user-friendly to people in a range of different roles with different levels of technical
literacy. In the highly complex world of investment banking this requires a major change to
IT architecture, which would take many person-years to complete. As a consequence, most
organizations have chosen to buy an off-the-shelf CRM package and build the interfaces
into it. There are a number of problems with this approach:
The package is not bespoke. The depth and breadth of the technology dazzles, but users
real needs are often forgotten, because of obsession with the capabilities of the whole
system. Users are expected to work with the technology provided rather than specify
what they really need. The package is not seen as an enabler but as a basis for reorgan-
izing the business.
There has been a tension in the implementation of CRM systems between helping indi-
vidual bankers/sales people versus helping the bank become productive in cross-
selling. In one case, the system was designed to make sales people more productive
with little focus on the coverage team. It is quite unlikely that sales people would enter
data on their own accounts they already know them well. This kind of data might only
be of value to others on the coverage team. This trade-off between individual and insti-
tution goes all the way through the design process.
Many packaged systems have no direct link to driving client satisfaction, share of mind
or any other strategic sales variable. In addition to this, there are a number of other oper-
ational problems for individual sales people, eg failure of the system to integrate with
their e-mail and diary/scheduling package (eg Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook), lack
of protection of confidentiality (simplistic approaches are common, in which fields can
be viewed either just by the owner or by all), although these deficiencies are now being
remedied.
CRM in investment banking and financial markets I 217
As Chapter 31 shows, CRM system implementation is most likely to be successful when
the organizational capacity for change is taken into account. Too much too soon causes
confusion and distrust of the system, leading to problems with uptake. Many CRM solu-
tions require a complete implementation for the system to be effective. This is generally
too much for the organization to take and the expensive package ends up being a
glorified contact management system, with few of the management information, client
planning or client intelligence benefits.
The politics of CRM
There are several organizational issues associated with putting technology at the heart of a
CRM solution. These issues arise partly from the unique nature of the sales environment of
an investment bank, where primarily individuals rather than the company are responsible
for delivery:
There is internal resistance to the solution because sales are bonus-driven and indi-
viduals believe they own the relationship, so are reluctant to put (as they see it) their
bonuses (which they see as derived from ownership of the relationship) at risk. The
CRM system is perceived to threaten this relationship ownership.
Client-facing users suspect that the value of the system is mainly its ability to create
management information rather than to increase efficiency and profitability.
CRM installations have not been selective enough in dissemination of information. So
much data is pushed towards users that much valuable time is spent sifting through it in
order to be able to use it.
So, the ultimate challenge is to deliver a CRM solution that supports sales and account
management, for example by providing the right information at the right time, so that it is
seen as an essential business tool both for the client-facing staff and their management. The
technology should be seen as an enabler, not the starting point for an organizational redesign.
SEEING REAL RETURN ON CRM INVESTMENT
Technology is clearly not the whole answer. There are several other requirements for
success in managing clients, and these must be present before the CRM system is imple-
mented (and ideally before it is specified). These include:
developing a global account management strategy;
218 I Sector situation
streamlining the bank to meet the needs of the client;
aligning a set of measures and related incentives to respond to client needs;
institutionalizing the breadth of client knowledge;
closing the loop: incorporating client feedback.
Developing a global account management strategy
The main activities of investment banks include arranging major loans for corporate clients,
organizing rights issues, performing financial engineering, advising on or carrying out
mergers and acquisitions and setting up initial public offerings. The rewards and prestige
to the banks of executing such assignments are very great, as are the costs and salaries of the
individuals doing such business. Knowing ones clients and the markets that they operate
in is absolutely essential. Revenue growth can be achieved if relationships with core clients
are strengthened through innovative service models that deliver the optimal mix of
products to each segment. This involves assessing the overall profitability of each client to
determine the appropriate service and delivery model. This requires a bank-wide under-
standing of each clients situation, to anticipate future trading and banking needs (with an
understanding of inherent profitability and future value). Aneeds-based analysis must be
pursued, to understand the optimal product mix for each client segment, and the outcome
of the analysis should be used to create tailored offerings for specific segments.
Getting the right coverage model with the right client set is fundamental to the future
profitability of the business. Questions the global account teams must ask themselves
during planning include:
Is this a strategic relationship?
Has this client historically made us money, or is it a prestige client that we want to see
on our books?
Will this client make the bank money?
What is the potential worth of this client?
How can cross-subsidization work?
The ability to anticipate demand from specific clients increases loyalty, facilitates successful
cross-selling and reduces the length and cost of the sales cycle. However, to reap such
benefits, the bank must ensure that its client management objectives are understood and
observed right through the bank, in terms of the structure through which it manages its
clients and in the setting of objectives, incentives and measurements.
CRM in investment banking and financial markets I 219
Streamlining the bank to meet the needs of the client
The banks structure must respond to the needs set by account management strategy,
taking into account both geographic and business needs. This is both cost-effective and
logical, as this allows the bank to jettison or restructure unprofitable and non-strategic
client relationships, whilst focusing on those that are most important strategically. Once the
bank is organized around what clients need and want, it becomes clearer which units of the
bank are adding substantially to the value proposition and to the banks profitability, and
lines of business can be rationalized accordingly. However, it is important to determine
where key cross-business interdependencies exist before finalizing decisions to remove or
absorb particular parts of the bank.
Providing sophisticated added value such as risk analysis and mitigation
advice/products to the same client is not only a way of generating loyalty and retaining
the client but also allows for transparency of cross-subsidization across the bank. The
ultimate aim is that the bank acts as a homogenized whole across product lines and
between geographies. The current and future value of the account must be recognized so
that business opportunity is maximized. For example, a bank may offer a corporate client a
large loan at favourable rates in anticipation of helping it with future bond issues or foreign
exchange transactions.
Most investment banks are (and may always be) organized mainly by product rather
than by market. Delivering specialized information and product advice or creating new
and more sophisticated financial instruments requires product focus from dedicated
specialists. However, this requirement must be balanced by the need to serve the client as
an institution. CRM technology alone is not enough to ensure sharing of information,
account planning and account servicing.
Historically, relationship managers have acted as the coordinators between the different
parts of the bank and the client. Owing to the organizational structure and measurement
systems, this has tended to be a reactive role an attempt to reduce sub-optimization and
wasted opportunity, rather than a high profile business management position. However,
best practice suggests that the benefits of client management can only be maximized if this
role becomes critical to the business. One of the leading investment banks has been devel-
oping and implementing its global relationship bank operation over many years. Its
strategy is detailed in the case study at the end of this chapter. Its experience shows how
important it is to get organizational design right. Client-focus is maintained through a
global account team that leverages the different sources of client value available across the
global network to meet client needs.
220 I Sector situation
Aligning a set of measures and related incentives to respond to client
needs
Measurement of people, processes, profitability, channels and clients attitudes must
underpin vision and objectives as well as enable assessment of success and failure. Feeding
back success and failure enables refinement and redefinition of future plans and activity. A
balanced business scorecard biased towards client-based measures of relationship strength,
momentum and innovation is the ideal tool to ensure that CRM is being effectively moni-
tored. It should focus on relationship returns over time, not just on revenue. It also needs to
measure and manage return on effort.
Carefully weighted incentives need to be developed to ensure that the business responds
properly to client-management initiatives. These incentives need to be cascaded down
through the bank, covering not only the global account team, but product specialist areas
too. This is fundamentally important if a bank is to see continued superb execution in each
of the product areas. Moreover, there needs to be alignment of action and objectives across
products and a process to coordinate and allocate resources to the clients.
Institutionalizing the breadth of client knowledge
Client knowledge must include quantitative as well as qualitative information that must be
shared across the organization. Although different parts of the business are likely to rely on
different CRM legacy systems, there must exist a connectivity layer above these initiatives
that provides all relevant parts of the organization with a common client identifier and
knowledge taxonomy so as to provide everyone with a common language for developing
institutional client knowledge.
Any knowledge-gathering exercise must include seamless e-mail integration. The
capture of knowledge about clients must be an extremely simple exercise and preferably a
natural by-product of the daily workflow. Existing CRM investments must be protected in
individual units. Client-management processes vary across different business units and
hence may require different CRM solutions.
Closing the loop: incorporating client feedback
For CRM initiatives to succeed, efforts must be rewarded (see Chapters 31 and 32 for more
on this). Clearly, balance sheets and broker lists will show at one level whether relation-
ships are growing in the right direction, but these are rather blunt and indirect instruments.
Abank seeking to understand whether it is achieving client management objectives must
work proactively with the client to gain feedback. Best practice shows that regular rela-
tionship reviews with clients allows the bank to:
CRM in investment banking and financial markets I 221
understand first hand client attitude and satisfaction (and the relationship between
satisfaction, loyalty and profitability);
understand client commitment;
experience what clients experience;
develop benchmarks and understand the competitive environment better.
CASE STUDY: IMPLEMENTING AND MAINTAINING A GLOBAL
CRM STRATEGY
Several years ago, an investment bank realized the value of CRM and undertook a radical
reorganization that would allow it to serve global clients at a worldwide level, whilst still
developing and strengthening local relationships. This initiative marked a new twist to the
focus on relationship management. The client was made the organizing principle. Table
13.1 describes the change.
Organizational design
Recognizing the dangers of the diseconomies of complexity, the bank adopted a matrix
structure for serving its global clients, as follows.
222 I Sector situation
Table 13.1 Moving to a global focus
Prior to initiative As a consequence of initiative
The bank was organized outside-in: first by The bank reorganized on an inside-out basis:
geography, then by product and finally by around client first, then by product and finally
client. by geography.
There was a myopic focus on revenue Focus became broader the bank aimed for
measured from product silos in individual higher growth and higher return. It looked
geographies little emphasis on cross- to maximize cross-border opportunities via
subsidization across products and global clients. Abalanced business scorecard
intra-country. Revenue was the key business was deployed to measure performance.
driver.
Businesses was defined by broad Business became truly global:
geographical areas (little integration). New organizational hierarchy was adopted
throughout the bank.
Processes were standardized and well
communicated.
Re-education programme was undertaken as
part of change management.
Products were rationalized on the basis of
what was important to global clients.
Key account managers
Highly experienced relationship managers were appointed to the role of key account
manager. These individuals now act as the focal point of the account, being the chief link to
the clients head office with a focus on the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)/treasury buying
centre. Unlike the original role of relationship manager, a key element of the job is to be
proactive to create and identify opportunities, rather than to react to suggestions from the
client. In addition to this, they must watch out for and manage alliance referral opportunities.
The key account manager has prime responsibility for the coverage model for that client.
The virtual account teams
The key account manager is responsible for orchestrating virtual global account teams who
serve the global client locally. Skills within the teams include industry analysis, risk
management, market management, product and service delivery teams. The teams are
responsible for delivering to subsidiaries of the client. Their intimate knowledge of the local
client requirements, specific market conditions, laws and regulations allows them to
deliver to the individual client needs. These teams are flexible enough to reform in order to
be able to create bespoke solutions quickly.
Account planning
The bank has recognized the need for a disciplined approach to relationship development.
It has developed an understanding of the relationship between level of effort/time
expended and the share of wallet achieved. Their clients are plotted on a relationship devel-
opment curve and segmented accordingly, and potential revenue can be assessed (eg they
may rate as a high priority prospect or a strategic partner delivering over $1m with much
more to come). This model provides the basis for further analysis, industry planning, rela-
tionship planning, activity and scarce resource tracking, and finally for deal tracking and a
single integrated pipeline.
Support processes measures, feedback and technology
The bank follows many of the best practices suggested in this chapter. It runs a balanced
business scorecard that is directly linked to incentives and regularly reviewed. Clients are
frequently approached for a relationship review and the output of this is fed back directly
and efficiently into the client management processes. Asingle CRM system was developed
to support the entire CRM process globally.
CRM in investment banking and financial markets I 223
Lessons learnt
The bank learnt some simple yet powerful lessons:
1. Have a knowledge of the client at the micro-level. Understand not only the company
and the industry that it is a player within (macro level), but endeavour to understand
the individuals within the company, the competitive pressures they are under, their
strategies and direction, their strengths and weaknesses (micro level). The bank aims
to have a better conscious awareness of this than the client does.
2. Anticipate requirement at the micro-level. Through an understanding of the client,
issues can be addressed before they become needs. The bank always attempts to
allocate employees time according to these anticipated requirements.
3. Consistently deliver as promised. Aim to deliver to need and ensure delivery of what
the client values, eg intellectual property, speed of response, value for money, etc.
4. Aim to be a top-three provider. The bank believes that points 13 above give them
competitive advantage. It aims to ensure that it is deemed to be one of the top three
providers, since this is where clients spend most of their money.
224 I Sector situation