Mortgage Originations Fall as Lenders Struggle to Recover, 1-16-08
The banking industry continues to globalize and evolve rapidly. Giant national and global bank holding companies continue to grow, both through acquisitions and through the opening of new facilities and business units. New business opportunities are opening up globally for major banks, especially in such booming markets as China and India. U.S. and European banks particularly are taking ownership in Chinese banks. Elsewhere, Spanish banks are acquiring banking firms in South America, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States (particularly in Hispanic markets within the U.S.). German and Italian banks are merging to form European banking giants. In this rapidly growing and changing industry, it is important to keep up-to-date on which trends are affecting the industry now and which one may come into play later. According to a recent report by Plunkett Research, Ltd., some of the most exciting of these trends include:
1) Banks Adopt Sophisticated Technology and Retail Perks to Attract Customers.
Banks around the world are investing heavily in technologies that target likely customers for the growing list of products and services that includes everything from checking accounts to mortgages to insurance policies. Once found, those potential customers are lured with a slew of perks such as retail gift cards, airline tickets or other awards based on points earned for using bank services.
2) Japan's Parliament Agrees to Privatize the Japan Post-One of the World's Largest Financial Services Organizations.
The Japan Post is a mammoth organization. At its largest (before privatization began splitting it up) it had 24,700 offices, 260,000 employees and an amazing $2.8 trillion in assets, including $1.9 trillion in banking assets (more, for example, than Citigroup's $1.6 trillion).
3) Mortgage Originations to Drop in 2007 and 2008/Origination Fees Fall/Online Competition Changes the Industry.
The Internet created a much more competitive landscape for home mortgages. Sites ranging from Ditech.com to LendingTree set low origination fees and made it simple to complete applications online, while the Internet itself made it much simpler for consumers to compare interest rates and mortgage options.
To find out more about these exciting trends and others, check out Plunkett’s Banking, Mortgages and Credit Industry Almanac 2008, or go to www.plunkettresearch.com and sign up for a subscription to Plunkett’s completely up-to-date online database!
About Plunkett Research, Ltd.
Plunkett Research, Ltd. is a leading publisher of complete business research and analysis resources designed to enable professionals in marketing, research and finance to access complete trends analysis, statistics, technology analysis and financial analysis of the world’s most exciting industries. For more information, visit www.plunkettresearch.com, or call 713.932.0000.