The McKinsey Quarterly

2007

• March 2007 

  Extending financial services to Latin America's poor

  The president of Inter-American Development Bank argues that achieving greater "financial democracy" is crucial for achieving greater inclusiveness, improving social cohesion, and generating broad-based growth.

• January 2007 

  What US workers don’t know about retirement

  Many preretirees have too rosy a picture of their golden years, and financial-planning firms have yet to develop helpful solutions.

2005

• November 2005 

  Competing for China's credit card market

  To be competitive, most foreign issuers will need to partner with a local company.

• September 2005 

  What Indian consumers want from banks

  Investment advice and better service are the places to start.

• July 2005 

  Financial advice for Europeans

  Financial-service providers that don't invest in better customer service will lose out on a potentially valuable consumer segment.

2004

• December 2004 

  Retail banking in China

  The race is on to make money from individual consumers. Foreign banks had better get into the game.

• December 2004 

  Selling life insurance to China

  The hour is late for foreign companies that haven’t already entered the Chinese market, but not too late for those with strong skills and creative strategies.

• August 2004 

  Managing credit card risk

  Four approaches could help issuers raise their profitability by up to 15 percent.

• August 2004 

  Seizing the Hispanic market

  Financial institutions will need to do more than just translate their brochures into Spanish to capitalize on opportunities in this consumer segment.

2003

• December 2003 

  Credit cards come to China

  Turning a profit in China’s nascent credit card market could take a while; here’s a shortcut.

2002

• November 2002 

  Sending money back home

  Money remittance services for immigrants represent a high-margin opportunity for financial institutions prepared to offer them a better deal.

• November 2002 

  Serving Europe's affluent investors

  Well-to-do investors in Europe are a hard market to crack. A new segmentation scheme could provide hooks for drawing and retaining them.

• June 2002 

  China's banks get personal

  Although some product markets will open up for foreign banks in China, the playing field won’t be as level as many expected. Yet Chinese banks must become far more savvy or risk losing their local dominance.

• May 2002 

  Build-to-order banking in Asia

  Asian banks will lose business unless they learn to tailor their services to individual needs.

2001

• December 2001 

  Could mobile banking go global?

  People who have never had a bank account could enjoy basic banking facilities for the first time thanks to mobile financial services—a good reason for service providers to turn their sights to emerging markets.

• June 2001 

  A broadband future for financial advice

  Before purchasing financial products, most Europeans want advice from experts. Broadband technology will allow it to be dispensed on-line, but will consumers accept the new dispensation?

• February 2001 

  Giving Asia some credit

  A survey probing Asian attitudes toward financial services suggests that many people say one thing and do another.

2000

• August 2000 

  A future for bricks and mortar

  Physical banks are not an anachronism, but less is sometimes more.

• August 2000 

  Banking on the device

  Both mobile phones and interactive TV could help on-line financial services reach market segments that elude other devices for accessing the World Wide Web.

• August 2000 

  Beyond day trading

  Round one of the on-line brokerage game was about adjusting to a new medium in a raging bull market of technology stocks and rising price-to-earnings ratios. Round two is about holding the client’s hand.

• August 2000 

  Click and save

  Incumbents have grown rich from customers who don’t manage their assets rationally. The World Wide Web will take away most of that income, but now that incumbents are finally facing the music, they are starting to compete effectively.

• August 2000 

  Plastic explosive

  Conventional credit card issuers need not cede territory to on-line upstarts offering low interest rates. They still have strengths that can be used to maintain a competitive advantage—if they move quickly.

• August 2000 

  The virtual reality of mortgages

  New Internet-based players face more challenges than some of them—or the stock market—once expected. Even so, the Net’s advantages can be brought to bear on the mortgage industry.

• February 2000 

  Financial services for everyone

  Two South African companies are showing that the poor are neither unbankable nor uninsurable. Bankers and insurers in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America, take note.

1999

• May 1999 

  Personal financial services goes global

  Being an insider in your local market is no longer enough. Do you have the skills to specialize or the market cap to acquire?

1998

• November 1998 

  Electronic bill payment and presentment

  Just about everyone who is (or is about to be) on-line has a bank, a broker, a credit card, or a mortgage. For a long time, the business has been a matter of numbers flickering from one file to another.

• November 1998 

  What’s in the cards?

  The future of the US payment card system.

• August 1998 

  Where your money went

  The banking, credit card, brokerage, and insurance industries are inexorably converging into a single personal financial services industry. Research has shed light on the flow of funds between products, the changing sources of profitability, and the reasons for these movements.

1997

• November 1997 

  Playing to the endgame in financial services

  There are many deals and more consolidation ahead. Ultimately, the model may be airlines or aerospace. Size will count, but success will require more than empire building.

• August 1997 

  Bancassurance

  Could banks be a new channel to sell insurance? Three partnership models.

• August 1997 

  Personal financial services: A question of channels

  Five key trends need to be recognized. Success will rest on knowing what customers really want.

• August 1997 

  Reinventing real estate closing

  $30 billion in economic value could be created. And many players could participate. Buying a home without a realtor or lawyer.

• May 1997 

  Emerging markets for personal financial services

  $380 billion in global profits and $255 billion outside the United States. Chinese profits could exceed the United Kingdom’s by 2002.

• May 1997 

  Mutual funds in Germany: Evaluating opportunities

  Germany’s mutual fund market is growing in line with Germans’ realization that they can no longer rely on the state pension to provide for their old age. This article looks at the types of retirement product that are likely to emerge, and at the market roles fund providers old and new might take.

1996

• February 1996 

  Who grew in personal financial services?

  As tight expense control runs out of steam as a means of generating earnings, financial services executives are wondering how best to achieve growth. McKinsey set out to identify the growth stars of the last decade, with surprising results.

1995

• May 1995 

  Battling for the wallet

  Battling for the wallet. For many players, bigger profits hide weaker positions. Who will be the discount stores, warehouse clubs, and category killers? Capturing 1,000 pieces of information per customer.