Commonwealth Bank of Australia Retail Banking Service

Premium Business Services

Wealth Management

Marketing Strategies at CBA

Suggestions

Competitor Analysis

National Australia Bank

Australian and New Zealand Banking Group

Western Pacific Bank

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

Mobile Application

One Stop Solution

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Commonwealth Bank of Australia:

Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, Commonwealth Bank of Australia or CBA is one of the four large banks of Australia. The bank was established in 1911 as a government bank, since then, it has seen tremendous growth. Today, Commonwealth Bank of Australia is a multinational bank with operations across United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Fiji, New Zeeland and Asia. The bank got privatized in 1996, with issuances of shares worth 1.2 Billion USD in 1991, 1.7 Billion USD in 1993, and 5 Billion USD in 1996. As of January, 2008, Commonwealth Bank of Australia was the second largest Australian listed company on Australian Stock Exchange (Commbank.com.au, 2014).

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is also regarded as the Commbank, and provides services insurance, investments, retails, business banking, institutional banking, funds management along with broking services etc. Currently, the bank structure is divided into 3 divisions, including Retail Banking, Premium Business, and Wealth Management (Commbank.com.au, 2014).

Retail Banking Service:

This division is specified to provide services to small business customers, along with, personal services.

Premium Business Services:

Premium Business Services divisions is further classified into two divisions, named Institutional Banking and Markets or IB&M and Business and Private Banking or B&PB. Institutional Banking and Markets provides services to large scale projects including institutional clients and clients from global markets. Business and Private Banking, on the other hand, provides services to business and private customers who avail banking services.

Wealth Management:

This division of Commonwealth Bank of Australia deals with funds management including provision of business services like business reports, insurances and portfolio management.

The subsidiaries of Commonwealth bank are spread across various nations. These include, CommInsure, commonwealth Securities, Colonia First State and Bankwest in Australia, ASB and Sovereign in New Zealand, Colonia National Bank in Fiji, PT Bank Commonwealth in Indonesia and AMTD Group Company Limited in Hong Kong. The diversification of commonwealth Bank of Australia allows it to serve globally.

Marketing Strategies at CBA:

A recent inquiry into the Australian Banking system has indicated that Australia has fully acknowledged banking methods, thus to grab market share from competitors, the major impact will be through provision of superior services, thereby, banking sector in Australia will have to introduce to superior services to enhance market share. In this regard, one of the most crucial segment is e-banking, together with provision of services at a personal level. Thus, one finds several Australian banks involved in introducing e-banking services.

To uphold its standards, Commonwealth Bank of Australia holds separate Marketing department, with Andy Lark as it Chief Marketing Officer. According to Andy Lark, Commonwealth Bank of Australia is changing the way banking occurs. Commonwealth Bank of Australia is highly interested in making the banking personal for its clients, thus trying to engage personally with clients on all matters.

In this regards, Commonwealth Bank of Australia is interested in releasing software applications that can provide banking services to its broad range of clients, and make banking personal for them. Current provision of such services thorough Commonwealth Bank of Australia include online confirmation of Account Balance, through which, the clients can check his/her account balance without requirement to move to bank or Automated Teller Machines (ATM). Additionally, online account also allows the client to review his/her transaction histories and maintain a record of payments and receiving. Such services, also allow the clients to review any unexpected changes in financial statement and keeps the information transparent between bank and client. Additional services offered by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) include services to transfer funds to other's accounts, online payments of salaries and payments of bills. It must be noted here, that such transparency enhances confidence levels between bank and its clients. Also, since, these services allow clients to receive the information they are seeking at their own will, so in other words, they enable personal banking for the clients (Commbank.com.au, 2014).

Additionally, Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched its application on all major platforms including Windows Phone, Android and Apple's iPhone, which allows its client's to access account information on the go. The can check their account details, payment histories and make transfers no matter where they are (Commbank.com.au, 2014).

Suggestions:

The underlying idea is; there might be times when the client do not has internet access. Either, he is in a remote area, or, his internet connection might not be working as expected, thus in those cases an alternate medium should be available. Thus, in those instances, Phone Banking will be of significant assistance. The client should be allocated some specified codes and, using his/her account number and those codes, the client must be able to access his/her account and make regular transaction as are performed using the online internet account. In this regard, Commonwealth bank of Australia will have to consider security concerns i.e. no unauthorized person must be able to obtain access to someone else's account. Thus, a call center agent might be able to offer services to first acknowledge whether the person fraudulent or not.
Another suggestion will be that, as of now, all banks are interested releasing software for mobile phones only. Whereas, most of the business community prefer usage of personal computers over mobile phones, thus introducing application that run on personal computers and provide e-banking services might be able to add to banks solutions. The application will allows customer access to his/her account without requiring them to logon to website again and again. The application will provide similar solutions as are provided by mobile phone application and website to keep the customers indifferent among both mediums.

Also, Commonwealth Bank of Australia must consider making other application that can indirectly benefit its market share. For instance, a game designed for children that help them understand the benefits of saving can eventually create goodwill regarding bank and enhancing its market share.

Competitor Analysis:

Considering Commonwealth Bank of Australia as of the four largest banks in Australia, its major competitors will include National Australia Bank, Australian and New Zealand Banking groups, or Western Pacific Bank.

National Australia Bank:

National Australia Bank also abbreviated as NAB was established in 1893, and lies as the fourth largest banks in Australia in term of Market Capitalization. National Bank of Australia ranks as the 17th largest bank in the world and operates across 10 countries serving more than 10.5 Million consumers. National Australia Bank operates more than 1, 800 branches and more than 4,500 Automated Teller Machines or ATMs globally (Nab.com.au, 2014).

National Australia Bank launched its major online services in 2009 under the name of UBank. Major e-banking services of National Australia Bank include ability to create accounts online. This service was introduced in 2009 and received Money Magazine's Award in the same year. Later, it provided services on those online accounts as well, with the name of UHomeLoan on which National Australia Bank received the award of Best Online operator (Nab.com.au, 2014).

Additionally, National Australia Bank has launched its application on Android and Apple's iPhone platform which allows its customer to obtain information regarding their account without the hassle to move to any bank or use personal computers.

Other online services offered by National Australia Bank are similar to those offered by Commonwealth Bank of Australia which include online information about account balance, funds transfer, transaction history and bill payments.

Australian and New Zealand Banking Group:

Australian and New Zealand Banking Group is also abbreviated as ANZ and stands as the third largest banks in Australia. The only banks bigger than Australian and New Zealand Banking Group include Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Western Pacific. Like Commonwealth Bank of Australia and National Australia Bank, Australian and New Zealand Banking Group is also operates globally and has strong presence in thirty countries across the globe.

Australian And New Zealand Banking Group offer a huge range of online banking services, which include mobile application for their customers. The application allows its customers to obtain account information, balance inquiry, transaction history and transfer payments. One limitation on the application is that it is only accessible on Android. Also, the customers can check online whether there is any Automated Teller Machine or ATM close by (Anz.com, 2014).

Other offered services are similar to those offered by Commonwealth Bank of Australia which include online inquiry of account information, balance inquiry, transaction history and transfers.

Western Pacific Bank:

Western Pacific Bank is also named as Westpac and stands as the second largest bank in Australia. It is headquartered in Sydney, and handles more than 1,200 branches and 2,900 Automated Teller Machines across Australia making it the largest banking network in Australia.

Western Pacific Bank has launched an application name Pay Pig, which allows parent to understand saving habits of their children and helps them how to improve those habits. One limitation on the application is that it is only accessible in Apple's iPhone (Westpac.co.nz, 2014).

Other services offered by Western Pacific Bank are similar to those of commonwealth Bank of Australia,…