WEST BANK

Back to Basics at West bank



Back to Basics at West bank

Introduction

The acquisition of west bank took place in 2007, now referred to as West Bank Corporation. Under the purchase agreement and terms, the outstanding share of common stock was converted into the right to elect to receive $23.00. All the outstanding options to acquire stocks were cancelled in terms of lump sum amount. This acquisition was followed by the losses that the bank was incurring lately. However, west bank still require revival plan to stay in the industry (European Economy News, 1).

West bank's initial target segment was student banking and finance sector. However, after several years and its position strengthen, it widens its operational scope to the mortgages and commercial banking transactions. Later, one of the moves of the west bank earned an extremely disagreeable reputation, when the bank announced the scarp of the interest free overdrafts for the graduates. Beside this loss of customer base, the recession also weakened the operations resulting in the acquisition of the west bank in 2009. Keeping in view all these circumstances and the slump economic trends, the bank will have to endeavor hard to revive its position. This paper discusses the proposal of chief executive Anne Jones in providing a strategic advantage to the bank by reviving its student banking segment. It highlights the pros and cons of this strategy, and whether it will be in benefit for the bank in the long run.

The Current Situation

Currently, west bank is undergoing massive losses, since it has lost the reputation and some of the profitable segments of the banking industry. The UKL banking industry is also in a contentious situation as various brands disappeared following the liquidity and debt issues. In this situation, it will be a challenging task to implement an expansion and revival strategy. However, before reaching the final solution, it is imperative to look into the current financial and managerial strength of West bank in making the bank revert to its primary target segment (Hodgson, 152).

Feasibility of Anne Jones' proposal

The proposal of Anne is feasible if the bank accumulates and deploys its available resources on one segment initially, that is the student banking sector. The benefit for west back is that it had operated in this area, the previous knowledge and expertise is there, and it has enjoyed an excellent reputation in the past among the graduates in the account and mortgage handling. The need is to come up with the positive- brand image once again (Hodgson, 152). The media is strong enough to position the brand any way it wants today. Now it is up to the management how it used the communication media. Another feasibility of this proposal is that, the west bank desperately needs to focus on any one segment to revive its share and revenues in the market. No other bank in UK has focused much intensively towards students account as did west Bank. If Anne's proposal is accepted, it will become a competitive advantage for ...