Publications

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July 2021
Teaching Plan

Aligning Mission and Margin at Southern Bancorp

By: Rebecca Henderson, Brian Trelstad and Eren Kuzucu

Teaching Plan for HBS Case No. 321-099. In October 2020, after spending almost a decade to turnaround Southern Bancorp, an Arkansan bank founded with the mission to provide financial services to rural, underserved communities, CEO Darrin Williams is wondering how... View Details

Keywords: Racial Wealth Gap; Banks and Banking; Growth and Development; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Mission and Purpose; Going Public; Investment Return; Social Issues; Wealth and Poverty; Banking Industry; Banking Industry; United States; Arkansas

November 1994
Case

Citibank European Strategy & Organization

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Thomas W. Malnight

Examines strategic and organizational issues facing Citibank as it pursues a highly focused strategy in Europe in the face of increasing competition. Central in this consideration is the role of the European regional organization. View Details

Keywords: Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Organizational Design; Competitive Strategy; Competition; Banking Industry; Europe

December 2023
Case

Davivienda Bank's Upskilling and Reskilling Strategy in Colombia

By: Jorge Tamayo, Raffaella Sadun and Jenyfeer Martinez Buitrago

Set in 2022, this case describes the digital transformation strategy of Davivienda— a leading player in Colombia’s commercial banking and one of the companies belonging to Grupo Bolívar, a major Colombian financial conglomerate—and the bank’s upskilling and reskilling... View Details

05 Feb 2015
Research & Ideas

How New BofA Executives Learn its ’Deep Smarts’

Company's Deep Smarts offers a roadmap for ensuring that critical knowledge remains in the organization. This excerpt focuses on the executive onboarding practice at Bank of America. Dorothy Leonard is the William J. Abernathy Professor... View Details

Keywords: Re: Dorothy A. Leonard; Banking

January 1995 (Revised October 1995)
Case

Citibank: Global Customer Management

By: Michael Y. Yoshino and Thomas W. Malnight

Describes Citibank's worldwide operations, which include activities in developing and developed markets. The bank's structure also varies across markets and regions, varying from autonomous national affiliates to an industry/product-based structure in its domestic U.S.... View Details

Keywords: Customer Focus and Relationships; Global Range; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Multinational Firms and Management; SWOT Analysis; Emerging Markets; Banking Industry; United States

March 2005 (Revised July 2007)
Case

Capital Controls in Chile in the 1990s (A)

By: Laura Alfaro, Rafael M. Di Tella and Ingrid Vogel

In 1991, Chile adopted a framework of capital controls focused on reducing the massive flows of foreign investment coming into the country as international interest rates remained low. Capital inflows threatened the Central Bank's ability to manage the exchange rate... View Details

Keywords: Developing Countries and Economies; Economic Growth; Financial Crisis; Capital; Governance Controls; Business and Government Relations; Chile

October 1999 (Revised July 2002)
Case

WingspanBank.com (A)

By: Sandra J. Sucher and Daniel Galvin

The case describes the new product development process for WingspanBank.com, an Internet-only financial services "infomediary" created by a team from Bank One's First USA division. The creation of the bank is described from concept development to prelaunch decision... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Decision Making; Information Management; Management Practices and Processes; Managerial Roles; Product Development; Performance Consistency; Competitive Advantage; Internet; Financial Services Industry; Web Services Industry; United States

2006
Other Unpublished Work

Does Banks' Corporate Control Benefit Firms? Evidence from US Banks' Control over Firms' Voting Rights

By: Joao A.C. Santos and Kristin Wilson

In this paper we examine the importance of banks' corporate control over their borrowers by investigating the loan pricing effect of banks' voting stakes in borrowers. We exploit the fact that banks may hold shares of firms in a fiduciary capacity to identify a clean... View Details

Keywords: Voting; Corporate Governance; Commercial Banking; Banking Industry; United States

SSRN

September 2010 (Revised December 2010)
Case

Santander Consumer Finance

By: J. Gunnar Trumbull, Elena Corsi and Andrew Barron

A Spanish company has to decide if they should expand into the fragmented European consumer finance market and has to make important organizational strategy decisions in the midst of the world economic downturn that followed the 2007 U.S. credit crunch. Since 2002, the... View Details

Keywords: Borrowing and Debt; Financial Markets; International Finance; Personal Finance; Consolidation; Corporate Strategy; Expansion; Financial Services Industry; European Union; Spain

22 Jan 2013
First Look

First Look: Jan. 22

a premium to accommodate expectations shocks from extrapolative traders, but markets are not efficient. Download the paper: http://papers.nber.org/papers/w18686 These Are the Good Old Days: Foreign Entry and the Mexican Banking System... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

January 2004 (Revised November 2006)
Case

Fleet Managed Assets Division (A)

By: Paul W. Marshall and Todd H Thedinga

Paul Kennedy, executive director of Fleet's Managed Asset Division, must decide whether to extend further credit to Polaroid Corp. in the fall of 2001. Polaroid's credit rating had been declining rapidly, but it was a major employer in the Boston area with many... View Details

Keywords: Information Technology; Credit; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Boston

15 Nov 2016
First Look

November 15, 2016

the optimal rule. Download working paper: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=50545 Who Should Select New Employees, the Head Office or the Unit Manager? Consequences of Centralizing Hiring at a Retail Chain By: Deller,... View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2000
Article

BanCrecen

By: S. Dario, E.L. Montiel and Tatiana Sandino

This case describes the aggressive entry of BanCrecen, an affiliate of the Mexican bank BanCrecer, in Costa Rica in 1994. Its strategy, like that of the Mexican home office, was to focus on personal banking, with the rapid expansion of neighborhood branches and strong... View Details

Keywords: Expansion; Globalization; Banks and Banking; Banking Industry; Costa Rica; Mexico

12 Oct 2017
Working Paper Summaries

The Decline of Big-Bank Lending to Small Business: Dynamic Impacts on Local Credit and Labor Markets

Keywords: by Brian S. Chen, Samuel G. Hanson, and Jeremy C. Stein; Banking

January 2008 (Revised September 2009)
Case

Financing American Housing Construction in the Aftermath of War

By: David Moss and Cole Bolton

At the start of WWI, the United States faced a significant housing shortage. Public officials feared the spread of disease—and even communism—in the nation's cramped urban centers where vacancy rates held near zero and families often "doubled up" in single-housing... View Details

Keywords: Central Banking; Bonds; Mortgages; Government Legislation; Business History; Housing; Banking Industry; United States

September 2007
Article

Related Lending and Economic Performance: Evidence from Mexico

By: Noel Maurer and Stephen Haber

Related lending, a widespread practice in LDCs, is widely held to encourage bankers to loot their banks at the expense of minority shareholders and depositors. We argue that neither looting nor credit misallocation are necessary outcomes of related lending. On... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Crisis; Financing and Loans; History; Business and Shareholder Relations; Banking Industry; Mexico

April 2022
Case

Mastercard: Creating a World Beyond Cash

By: Sunil Gupta, Linda A. Hill, Julia Kelley and Emily Tedards

In late 2021, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach and Chairman and former CEO Ajaypal “Ajay” Banga considered how Mastercard could best position itself for continued success in the years to come. Since Mastercard’s initial public offering in 2006, the company had grown and... View Details

June 2023
Case

Accounting for Loan Losses at JPMorgan Chase: Predicting Credit Costs

By: Jonas Heese, Jung Koo Kang and James Weber

The case examines the accounting for loan losses at a large bank, how a bank sets its Allowance for Loan and Lease Losses (ALLL) on its financial statements. ALLL, and the rules that set them, determine when banks would and would not extend loans, which significantly... View Details

Keywords: Accounting Standards; Accrual Accounting; Financial Statements; Financial Reporting; Banks and Banking; Financing and Loans; Banking Industry; United States