Banking Needs a New Manager

In my earlier writings, I have voiced my concern that the banking industry is heading for a major manpower crisis. A study conducted a few years ago predicted that by 2011, European banks would struggle to fill 25 to 40 percent of senior-executive/ strategic positions. Between 2009-12, Indian Public Sector Banks are estimated to lose a whopping 175,000 officers – and their accumulated knowledge and experience – to retirement; what’s worse, they don’t seem to have found a way to replace them yet. Similar patterns can be seen in other parts of the world.

Sure, inadequate banking education and training infrastructure is a big part of the problem. So is the fact that a banking career no longer tops the jobs wish list. But there’s another worry looming in the form of a shake-up that will be caused by the entry of Generation Y into the banking workforce as well as the customer base. Just picture a digitally dependent 25 year-old attending to a senior citizen belonging to the old school. Or the opposite. I rest my case.

Which is why, a recent article titled, “Redefining the New Bank Manager” really caught my attention. The author says that the role of the bank manager is long overdue for some serious innovation, because conventional staffers using conventional methods simply won’t be able to cope with the new reality. He goes on to say that besides being a functional expert, the new bank manager must be (among many other things):

• A champion of customer issues
• A revenue generator, rather than a cost cutter
• An innovator and opportunity seeker
• “Ready” for digital banking – mobile payments, tablet banking, broadband communication and all

A final recommendation – educational institutions offering Banking and Finance courses must revamp their curriculum to produce this new bank manager.

I couldn’t agree more.