INTRODUCTION & TARGET
Intro:
The case begins with Ana Peralta,(Director of the Internet Network at Bankinter) analyzing the success of Bankinter’s foray into e-banking through a progressive portalization strategy executed through E-collaborator. This approach was a great success for the Bank nearly doubling the number of new clients with lower costs involved. Riding on this positivity, their stock doubled within a month! There was no doubt that the success of the internet business was vital to the stocks as well as the growth and strategies of the financial services provider.
The small national independent banking organization was soon able to position itself as a futuristic innovative multichannel low cost provider by being able to capitalize on technology and the positive use of the internet. Bankinter’s initial strategy was to be the “most effective urban middle sized bank leader in corporate services and in the upper income” brackets when it first opened in 1965 as a JV of Banco Santander and Bank of America. However, in the early 90’s they began to close several branches and change the focus on product & channel-oriented marketing and soon they were poised to able to take advantage of the internet boom.
Once a bank which focussed on credit cards, loans & mortages, they now began to offer telephone, internet and virtual banking along with new services such as car insurance and mutual funds etc. Quickly identifying the important role the internet could play, Bankinter launched its online site in 1997 and began a three-pronged strategy to make the most of its internet advantage:
1) Partnering with Portals and capitalizing on internet traffic
2) Launch an Internet Branch & lastly
3) Migrating financial transactions from a physical space to something new and virtual.
By the end of 2001, Bankinter was processing more transactions online than in their physical bank spaces and ebankinter.com became a benchmark for the industry