Alpen Bank Case Solution

Alpen Bank’s headquarters in Zurich

1. Developed a reputation for excellence in serving affluent clientele; over 200,000 customers in a country with just 7.7 million households which is a great penetration

2. Apart from basic deposit, checking and personal loan services, customers have access to a wealth management program composed of financial planning and investment products

3. They have not launched a credit card because of low per-capita income levels, a poorly developed infrastructure of point-of-sales terminals and the population’s inexperience with consumer credit

Gregory Carle;

1. Alpen’s country manager for Romanian

2. Has been with Alpen since 1992, was appointed in 2000 to country manager for Romania.

3. Has overseen the opening of 14 additional branches in Romania

4. Believes a credit card business would be an important growth vehicle but needs an articulate compelling business strategy with clear product position and strong economic case

The task;

5. Contemplating a credit card launch in the Romania market

Goal;

6. Credit card launch has to add $5 million of annual profit to the Consumer Bank segment within two years

Credit Card Industry Background;

Composed of four key parties that work together to provide card transaction services;

1. Network/card associations; enable transactions to be cleared by connecting merchants, merchant acquirers, and card issuers. Visa and MasterCard are the two most extensive networks that set the operating rules that all parties in the system abide to you

2. Merchant acquirers; the distribution and sales arms of the payments industry, they sign up merchants for card acceptance and provide the support that merchants require to process card transactions: point-of-sale terminals, data transmission, payment authorization and payment settlement

3. Merchants; the restaurants, retailers, gas station etc., that accept cards

4. Card issuers; typically...