A Study Of Hubbing As A Measure Of Reducing Costs And Increasing Efficiency In The Banking Industry Case Study: Standard Chartered Bank

ABSTRACT

The banking sector has increasingly become competitive. A dwindling economy, increases in

the number of banks, high interest rates have all led to a rise in operational costs and

consequent reduction in profits. This has necessitated banks to develop strategies that enable

them to provide superior service at minimum costs.

The objective of this study was to investigate the extent to which "Rubbing" (a process of

reducing costs whereby banks are using remote locations where labour is cheaper or technical

expertise more plentiful), as a strategy can be implemented to reduce costs as well as increase

efficiency of the bank. The study was to further investigate whether the hubb (the central

transaction office) was effective.

The study concentrated on one bank: Standard Chartered Bank. The tools used to carry out

the study were both structured and open-ended questionnaires. The questionnaires were

distributed to both the customers and staff of the bank. The questionnaires were administered

through interviews. The variables used were cost and efficiency. The study sought to find out

if the strategy (hubbing) was able to achieve the objective of increasing efficiency as well as

reducing cost both to the customers and the bank.

The study revealed that the hubb had resulted in a marked improvement in quality of service.

Over 70% of the respondents agreed that services such as depositing, withdrawing and ATM

services had improved. The cost of transactions had gone up as confirmed by 90% of the

respondents. Much as the quality of cheque books had improved, 100% of the respondents felt

that the turn around time for issuance of these accessories had increased. Loss of jobs was

cited as a negative effect of automation.

From the study, it can be concluded that the hubb has resulted in improvement on the overall

quality of service. The bank has been rendered more efficient as evidenced by the fact that

more than 70% of the respondents felt that the speed of transactions had increased. The study

indicates that the hubb had indeed resulted in reduction in costs related to duplication of

labour.

There are however a few areas that need improvement. The results indicate that there is a

need to improve the communication network in the bank. Only 21 % of the respondents felt

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that the communication network was excellent. There is also a need to improve the quality of

A TM cards as well as the turn around time for duplicate statements issuance. Online

shopping facilities were cited as one of the areas that both the staff and customers felt needed to be introduced by the bank.