Review on Competitive Viability in Banking, Scale & Scope

Exploring Forces and Challenges in the Banking Industry

Abstract

This paper explores the main forces that are driving this process. Acknowledging that the search for scale and scope economies is one of them, the paper emphasises that the empirical evidence in support of such economies is mixed, at best while scale and scope economies exist, in principle, they are difficult to attain in practice. The paper considers strategic positioning in an uncertain and rapidly changing environment a more important factor by expanding scope (and scale), financial institutions acquire options to venture into new activities.