Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction and Background xi
1 The Excellent Banks 1
2 Lessons from the Past: Two Turbulent Decades 7
3 Shaping the Business Model 21
4 People and their Culture 35
5 The Leadership Factor 51
6 Sustaining Revenue Growth 59
7 Managing Size and Complexity: The Challenge
Becomes Acute! 75
8 Execution and Client Service 85
Cost management 86
Technology 90
Customer service 92
Attracting and retaining the best people 93
9 The Profile of Risk 97
10 How the Excellent Banks See the Future 109
The consolidation process 109
More demanding clients 116
The importance of asset management 117
Credit derivatives as a threat 118
An independent perspective from our bankologists 119
11 Our Own Reflections and Forecasts 123
Managing size and complexity 126
Cross-border mergers 127
The outlook for consolidation in general 129
v
The profitability of retail banking 132
The outlook for risk management 133
Changing the culture 135
Appendix 1: Profiles of the Excellent Banks 139
Appendix 2: The Business Principles of Goldman Sachs 157
Bibliography 159
Index 161