Retail banking competitor tracker - February 09

Datamonitor's Retail Banking Competitor Tracker is a monthly product providing updates on key events relating to major and innovative players in the retail banking sector. Covering events such as M&A activity, market entries and withdrawals, partnerships, product innovation and customer targeting on a global basis, the Retail Banking Competitor Tracker provides succinct summaries of key stories.

Report Highlights
The growing emphasis on catering to consumer needs and desires through new product offerings and services designed to maximize customer relationships have explained why product innovation has become more frequent over the past few months.

However, the general split in news stories between the two main themes was more evenly distributed in February.

One standout development was Deutsche Bank taking a minority stake in Postbank, which could be part of an ambitious takeover in the future.
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Table of Contents 2
Introduction 3
This tracker provides both one-month and 12-month views of developments 3
Each month, Datamonitor tracks the most relevant announcements from 79 competitors 3
Datamonitor's Retail Banking team provides analysis of the key developments at both the one-month and 12-month level 4
A fully searchable database of the past 12 months of developments is also delivered alongside the report 4
Key Trends and Developments in February 5
Despite the low level of competitor developments, the retail banking landscape continues to adjust to ever changing market conditions 5
Deutsche Bank's minority stake in Postbank could be part of an ambitious takeover in the future 5
Swedbank's move to improve its IT shows the importance the bank attaches to achieving cost reductions 6
NAB's 'StepUp' program to lend to lower income earners aims to improve reputation and trust 6
Overall competitor activity in February was relatively low compared with the previous 12 months 7
The general split in news stories between the two main themes was more evenly distributed in February 7
Half of all competitor developments originated from Western Europe and a quarter from Asia Pacific 8
Similar to the previous month, new product developments were most frequent competitor developments 9
M&A, Partnerships and Organic Growth 11
Barclays 11
UK: Barclays acquires PT Bank Akita 11
BNP Paribas 11
France: BNP Paribas and Fortis amend terms governing the acquisition 11
Citibank 11
China: Citi China opens new branch in Hangzhou 11
East Africa: Zain ties up with Citibank and Standard Chartered to provide mobile banking service 12
Hungary: Citibank opens new branch in Godollo 12
Russia: ZAO Citibank opens a new bank in Moscow 12
Commonwealth Bank 13
Australia: Commonwealth Bank of Australia adds 700 ATMs 13
Deutsche Bank 13
Germany: Deutsche Bank completes transaction of 50m Deutsche Postbank shares 13
Millennium BCP 13
Angola: Banco Millennium Angola closes deal with Sonangol and Banco Privado Atlântico 13
Nationwide BS 13
UK: Nationwide opens a new branch in Albion Street, Leeds 13
Swedbank 14
Sweden: Swedbank creates a new IT-service unit 14
Product, Services and Innovation 15
Banco Sabadell 15
Spain: Banco Sabadell launches electronic version of its market calendar with Google toolbar 15
First National Bank 15
South Africa: First National Bank offers student loans for university education 15
Lloyds Banking Group 15
UK: Halifax launches new Reward Current Account 15
UK: Lloyds TSB announces the launch of its three-year mortgage product 16
National Australian Bank 16
Australia: NAB launches StepUp 16
Nationwide Building Society 16
UK: Nationwide announces new range of mortgage products 16
Northern Rock 17
UK: Northern Rock introduces new range of mortgage products 17
UK: Northern Rock introduces two year flexible fixed mortgage products 17
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation 18
Singapore: Current and savings account customers to receive cash prizes whenever they save 18
Yorkshire Building Society 18
UK: Yorkshire Building Society launches new mortgage products 18
Appendix 19
Methodology 19
Further reading 20
Ask the analyst 20
Datamonitor consulting 20
Disclaimer 21
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Table 1: The 79 companies and subsidiaries covered by Datamonitor's Retail Banking Competitor Tracker 3
Table 2: List of banks tracked , table 1 of 2 19
Table 3: List of banks tracked, (table 2 of 2) 20
Figure 1: Compared with previous months, the general split between the news stories was more even in February, 2009 8
Figure 2: As expected, Asia Pacific and Western Europe dictated the majority of competitor developments, 2009 9
Figure 3: New product developments have become more recurrent over the past two months, 2009 10
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