Macquarie Bank's opportunities and threats in e-broking

¶ … e-Broking industry and how Macquarie bank can capitalize on it. It has 3 sources.

Online banking have been a phenomenon a few years back but today, the new trend is the inclusion of e-broking a concept that is being accepted by most of the online customers as ideal and convenient. Macquarie is one such firm that endeavors to exploit the opportunities that exist in this industry and aims to recruit and secure a market share that rivals its competitors.

Opportunities and threats

Most of these broking firms specialize in financial services that are similar to the offline brokerage companies. These include product lines like "ancillary services such as equity research, real-time quotes, news and market data, analytical tools, and alert systems which send a message to the customer's PC, pager or mobile phone when a particular share price has reached a trigger level." [Evans, 2000]. Macquarie is no different from these firms in that they offer information on stocks that they transact in, the companies' activities, history of the performance of these stocks including trend chart and monthly share price updates; forecasts for dividend data and consensus forecasts are also included; information on the capital changes, stocks split, bonuses as well as legal issues of the placement shares; and profiles of these companies. For its Inner Circle clients Macquarie offers stock broking premium services like in-depth research, financial adviser and monthly portfolio updates and statements.

Like all financial service companies, Macquarie and its counterparts are subjected to the external. This range from the political, legal, economical and especially the technological environment. These offer them opportunities or may pose as threats and could even wipe out the company. According to the report on Online broking issued by the ASX it has been observed that the numbers of online brokerage firms are increasing. The growth rate increased from 20 to 30% for the year 2000 and it is expected that industry will increase even more in the coming years. The opportunities lie in the fact that as banks, insurance and international competitions are moving online the scope and breadth of the market has also increased. Many of the famous European and American brokerage companies are also moving online or at least form an online subsidiary to serve its online customers. Why this medium has become a favorite and appeal to these organizations is because of the reduction of cost factor which allows the companies to trade at half the cost. Any entrant can easily participate in it without having to fear for the high cost involved in transactions. A report [Goldberg 2000] on online brokerage for example indicate that e-broking cost half the price for transacting offline with some of the market rate range from $5 by Brown & Co. To Merrill Lynch at $45. The variation in the price along with the flexibility to choose the kind of products one want is a critical for business strategic development.

That is not all, it has been estimated that [Evans 2000] the number of online customers are increasing day by day. The report by www.Consultfor example noted that that the online vicinity offers flexibility to the kinds of customers that can participate in broking transactions and of all age groups. The female population consists of 25% while those of male consist of 35%. This shows that there is a lot of scope in targeting both male and female customers. The demographics however have to be further segmented according to the age group that is likely to most frequent online broking portals.

Linked with this is the fact that inherent in the flexibility factor is the threat. Since online companies face constant threats to their existence from outsiders like hackers, juvenile pranks as well as industrial espionage, online brokerage which is sensitive to privacy issues might face these attacks.

But perhaps the most important aspect that Macquarie Bank and other online brokers should worry about is the degree and speed with which it response to the economical and political environment. As soon as there is a market lowdown companies like Brown, American Express, DLDirect, MSDW Online and E*Trade all fall short in their performance when the market is set back by the economy. Unable to answer and poor training of customer representatives and consultants place these companies at an awkward position so that they are forced to adopt the unaware attitude so they are not responsible if they do not response.

New Entrants

As such there are no new entrants but nevertheless there are constant increases in the number of online companies that are formed from the brick and mortar divisions. These companies do not require extensive investment in structurizing and establishment. Instead they are competitive and can meet the challenge of the existing firms which makes them formidable to compete with.

Substitute products

At the moment most of the competitors are offering brokerage services ranging from financial consultancy to stock trading as well as maintaining investment portfolios. Macquarie's Equities division is supposed to be reflected on its website services including historic prices, updates, transaction and customer service for retail stock broking. Trading becomes easier as apparently the representatives are equipped with information online and with a phone call stocks can be sold or bought. However, as the industry modernize online companies like E*Trade and Schwab are specializing in their services by including products that are aside from brokerage like mortgage, insurance, bill payments and banking services. These are then enhanced by cross border brokerage transactions for currencies as well as multiple information feedbacks so that the portfolios can be personalized as much as possible [Evans 2000].

Customer Issues

The speed with which the companies offer their services to their customers thus has become a leverage factor as the broking companies can not only offer the same kind of information and service as its rival is offering but also at a phenomenal speed. In a survey of the online broking "service" Evans [2000] have noted that although most of the companies online have improved in their services from 1999 nevertheless they still lack in their customer service which is critical in the financial service organizations. Evan's survey report indicate that the majority of the companies are ranked according to their service not only in providing accurate information but also on their speed, reliability, prompt, trust, and the ability to work at the speed the client want by becoming sensitive to the demands of these clients. In this regard in a Lafferty Internet Survey E*Trade ranks the top among 50 companies while Comsec ranked top among the Asian countries and in Europe, Self Trade of France ranked third. Upon a closer look at the customer service side of their business it has been observed that although overall these companied ranked the top but it has been Wingspan a small company which is ranked for its accuracy and promptness and perhaps the most favored among the clients.

One of the reasons why these companies are not considered to be at the top of the list is that they still consider online business like those of brick and mortar. Whereas customers demand seconds' reply some companies take days to reply to their e-mail queries. This not only makes it highly improbable as the company of choice but also the fact that they eventually lose their customer base by losing their trusts. In a business where stocks change prices within seconds and brokers have to work by the minute prompt action is required at all times to serve to the clients in order to transact as quickly and as much as possible. Once a company becomes online it has committed to such a service and hence must meet up with it. Those who cannot lose out in the competition. Customers require sensitivity and prompt informational service as well as results of their decisions so that they can concentrate on other services and for this they require accurate and speedy information. This means that any firm that anticipate to work in this environment must have a well equipped research department in order to offer it market leverage against its competitors as well as an exceptional team of consultants to answer to calls within seconds.

But first of all, one must establish the categorization of these clients and what time do they most frequent the buying or selling arena. And furthermore what kind of information do they usually require to make rapid decisions. To identify a list of high demands and low demands by the clients, the researcher suggest that the company pose an online survey questionnaire to find out what are the criteria that the client consider an online broking company to be ideal. These questions must be directed with the aim to improve on existing products and services and perhaps even include more products; furthermore the aim of the survey must be to inform to the customers that Macquarie cares for their needs and therefore require their feedback in order to better serve them; and most of all Macquarie must inquire on the frequency of their transactions according to demographics so as to determine the target market that has the potential and even the inclination to buy stocks or user online financial services on a daily basis. This research would ensure that the company secures a customer base and a continuous flow of income. With this the company can also shift/modify or change its commission, transaction costs and service costs for customers thereby gaining leverage against its customers. Furthermore, what Macquarie [the researcher] can do is establish a forum that include one or two representatives/experts to navigate queries. Such live queries online would greatly assist in cutting down the phone time but yet offer personalized service. While the questionnaire can be used for once a month survey the forum can help the company monitor the demands of the customers as they service them thereby cutting down on research time as well. Before the individuals enter into the forum they are required to fill in pertinent information so that it would serve as research fields thereby helping the research division to effectively commutate the kind of customers Macquarie has and what are their needs [Evans 2000].

Positioning for Macquarie's online service look at Macquarie online it can be observed that its services are still at the rudimentary level. To improve on that Macquarie first of all need to expand the scope and breadth of its services. At the moment it seems that the company is engaged in more free services like updates, stocks pricing as well as general information of the market whereas its competitors have clearly been ahead of this range. ComSec and E*Trade for example are engaged in enhanced customer services as well as highly competitive product line that fulfills the philosophy of a one-stop-shop for financial products. With one account the customers can easily access all kinds of financial services from long to short-term investment as well as banking. Transacting therefore is a matter of seconds. With online information updates the customer does not really require the assistance of the representatives except for critical decision purposes.

Macquarie on the other hand can easily fulfill these requirements as its brick and mortar business model is fully equipped with such services ranging from equity to commercial banking as well as investment banking. Macquarie's exceptional customer service can also be capitalized online as it only need to train its customers to be equipped with information online which is possible by the inclusion of a well equipped research division.

Furthermore, Macquarie already has an established international division which deals with neighboring countries' stocks and currencies. This can be improved and modified to serve to the online customers as well. While the American and European broking companies rank first and secure the highest market share in the Asia Pacific region only ComSec ranks the highest. The market for Asia therefore can be exploited and gradually expand to other regions of the world. This means that first Macquarie needs to position itself in the neighboring countries' stock exchange and customers and then it can enter into the more volatile and profitable stock exchanges of the U.S. And Europe.

Niche marketing must be done by improving on product lines for on -- the move customers who are increasing in the population in Asia and elsewhere. This would however not be limited to the male population. It must also exploit the female population by offering them flexibility of short-term and cheap stocks to orient them into the world of investment. Features like mortgage and insurance would surely appeal to the married demographics as they would be more interested in securing investment for their families that usually entail huge investments.

Conclusion

Thus with the above positioning and development of services, it is expected that Macquarie would be able to compete side by side with ComSec, E*Trade, KM and the like. Although the report outlines a host of services that can be included but it must be noted that Macquarie already has a service base; all it needs is to improve on them and enhance its customer service.