Case Studies

Case studies for use in Groups (First in first served! Once a group has chosen a case study, it is no longer available for another group. Choose carefully, some are more difficult than others, offering the chance to shine! Remember: you need to carry out ethical due-diligence. Good recommendations foresee different possible outcomes and challenges.) 1. You are a management team at a bank that is feeling competitive pressures: the financial crisis has made international borrowings more expensive and senior management are pushing for more ideas to increase earnings. A member of the team proposes changing many previous “free” offerings to “fee-based” offerings, such as automatic-teller use, teller services and cheque overdrafts. Competitors are charging their customers $20 for overdrafts, a process which really costs about $2. The majority of customers with cheque overdrafts have very small accounts. This tends to be true of those who use teller services, too. Tellers commonly are of the opinion that they are people who feel very uncomfortable with the internet. What recommendations does your team make with respect to the proposal? 2. A long-time customer approaches has approached a team-member for financing for a new business venture. The customer offers as collateral a piece of property he has purchased in a rural location for the purpose of building a housing development. An appraiser was sent to the property and she accidentally discovers that this property has had some toxic waste dumped on it. It would appear that the customer is unaware of the fact but there is reason to believe that the waste may leech into the water table and affect neighbouring land. The appraiser's recommendation was to go ahead with the financing, accepting the property as collateral, saying, “It is up to the authorities to regulate waste, not us. If the owner doesn't know about it, there is no reason why we should know either. We can't be responsible for every spill around the country.”