BANKING AND FINANCE INDUSTRY

The banking and finance industry – from investment banking, private banking, wealth management and brokerage, to insurance and consumer finance – is at a critical stage in its development. As a result of globalization, deregulation and technological developments, the industry is becoming more competitive than ever before.

Bank

Most large banking and finance companies offer similar suites of products and services to both corporate and consumer clients, and increasingly it is becoming more difficult to differentiate between them.

The bottom line is that banking and finance companies with low cost structure, greater internal efficiency and better customer service will gain market share over their competitors.

Communication among and between stakeholders is key to success and communicating in writing has become a core business skill in this fast-paced technological environment. It is increasingly important to be able to convey written messages to customers, business partners and colleagues in a well-structured, accurate and consistent manner.

Unconvincing business plans, feasibility reports and proposals; garbled emails, letters and web articles that need clarification and explanation; confusing procedures, guidelines and specifications; and poorly written financial and regulatory reports waste time, money and productivity.

From administration and finance associates to department heads and general managers, banking and finance industry staff spend upwards of 40% of their time at work writing.

CASE STUDY

Subsidiary of a bank
A leading provider of superannuation, investment and insurance products

THE COMPANY

Over 2,000 staff with the majority of them completing college or university
Staff work long hours on performance-based incentives
Branch offices in most of the major metropolitan areas
At the forefront of technological advancements and will be launching a Learning Management System within 12 months
Sophisticated and strategic approach to learning, offering a range of blended learning solutions to fit in with learner preferences
Budgetary constraints ensure razor-thin margins are not eroded
Employees are time-poor and irritated by anything that wastes their time
Savvy staff with good computer skills and very high expectations

POOR WRITING COSTS THE BANKING AND FINANCE INDUSTRY MONEY

According to Joseph Kimble of the Plain Language Association International, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Investment Company Institute and eight mutual-fund groups worked together to develop a ‘profile prospectus’ for people to read before investing in a mutual fund.

Each profile prospectus contained concise information on 11 investment points and was made up of just a few pages, as opposed to the 12 or more pages in a traditional prospectus. The Investment Company Institute then tested the two kinds of prospectuses on 1,000 people who had recently bought mutual funds.

In every one of a series of comparisons – including how easy it was to find and understand several important items – the buyers rated the profile prospectus higher than the traditional prospectus. What's more, most of the buyers had not even read the traditional prospectus before investing; but 61% of that group said they would be very likely to read the well-written and structured profile prospectus.

THE BRIEF AND SOLUTION

REQUIREMENT	SOLUTION: CORPORATE LICENCE
Get the most value for money possible, with the smallest upfront investment and without compromising courseware quality.	UNBELIEVABLE VALUE FOR MONEY Paid one fixed and affordable price with a small annual renewal fee making the cost per user only a few dollars rather than hundreds of dollars. Avoided exorbitant cost of content development by purchasing high quality and well-tested courseware designed by business writing experts with experience in the banking and finance industry and endorsed by the industry. Eliminated the costs associated with additional on-site training including facilitator salaries, venue rentals, participant travel, meals etc. Fit in with their current technological framework (no LMS) and be able to accommodate the company as their technology is upgraded.
Fit in with their current technological framework (no LMS) and be able to accommodate the company as their technology is upgraded.	UNLIMITED SYSTEM FLEXIBLE Received sub-administrator rights to our LMS as their ‘virtual’ system until their LMS is up and running. Once it is, they will receive SCORM compliant courseware to upload onto their LMS at no extra charge.
Be able to prove to the learners that the solution wouldn’t waste their time, but in fact would save them time in the long run.	CONVENIENT, TIME-SAVING AND TARGETED LEARNING Optional pre-assessments acknowledge the different skill level among learners and allows for recognition of prior learning (RPL). This has been a huge time-saver as it helps learners determine which courses they do and do not need to complete on the road to writing competence. Learning is self-paced, giving learners a chance to work at a pace that suits them best. The courseware is made up of a number of brief lessons, making it easy for learners to schedule time to complete the courses and keep motivated. Help create an impressive and professional first impression. In most cases, it was found that the first contact a banking employee had with a customer, potential customer or stakeholder was in writing and the outcome was less than impressive. Reduce costly mistakes caused by misinterpretation of incomplete, long-winded and ambiguous information. Improve the success rate of persuasive writing, including proposals, business cases, tenders and recommendation reports. Guarantee a visible and significant improvement in the appearance, style and consistency of all documents.
Help create an impressive and professional first impression. In most cases, it was found that the first contact a banking employee had with a customer, potential customer or stakeholder was in writing and the outcome was less than impressive. Reduce costly mistakes caused by misinterpretation of incomplete, long-winded and ambiguous information. Improve the success rate of persuasive writing, including proposals, business cases, tenders and recommendation reports. Guarantee a visible and significant improvement in the appearance, style and consistency of all documents.	FERRARI ENGINE The courseware is the most comprehensive business writing and plain English courseware available. So far, in all cases participants cited increased confidence, improved feedback, less editing time and an overall improvement to the ‘look and feel’ of their written work. All participants who have completed the training rated the quality of the courseware to be OUTSTANDING or GOOD.