Banks In Singapore Research Articles

Corporate‐customer satisfaction in the banking industry of Singapore

Extends the current understanding of customer satisfaction at the business‐to‐business level in the Asian banking industry. The main thrust of the paper is an attempt to conceptualise a comprehensive model of satisfaction at the business‐to‐business level incorporating guanxi (Chinese business relationships), relationship marketing and the disconfirmation paradigm. The essence of the research highlighted the importance of relational constructs, in addition to the disconfirmation paradigm, in impacting customer satisfaction at the business‐to‐business level in the Singapore banking industry. At the business‐to‐business level in the Asian context, the disconfirmation paradigm is still the predominant paradigm influencing the customer satisfaction process. Relationship marketing and guanxi are significant in our comprehensive model of corporate‐customer satisfaction. Relationship marketing was found to have both a direct and an indirect impact (through disconfirmation) on corporate‐customer satisfaction. Guanxi was found to exert an indirect impact on satisfaction as opposed to the initial hypothesised direct impact on satisfaction.

A generic information extraction architecture for financial applications

The advent of computing has exacerbated the problem of overwhelming information. To manage the deluge of information, information extraction systems can be used to automatically extract relevant information from free-form text for update to databases or for report generation. One of the major challenges to the information extraction is the representation of domain knowledge in the task, that is how to represent the meaning of the input text, the knowledge of the field of application, and the knowledge about the target information to be extracted. We have chosen a directed graph structure, a domain ontology and a frame representation, respectively. We have further developed a generic information extraction (GIE) architecture that combines these knowledge structures for the task of processing. The GIE system is able to extract information from free-form text, further infer and derive new information. It analyzes the input text into a graph structure and subsequently unifies the graph and the ontology for extraction of relevant information, driven by the frame structure during a template filling process. The GIE system has been adopted for use in the message formatting expert system, a large-scale information extraction system for a specific financial application within a major bank in Singapore.

An Internet application for on-line banking

The Internet explosion and the possibility of direct digital interaction with large numbers of home consumers presents tremendous opportunities, and challenges, to the financial services community. Today's providers must reckon with the Internet and on-line services, or potentially lose prime customers to new, nontraditional players. In this paper, the design and development details of an on-line banking (OLB) application for one of the banks in Singapore have been described. The implementation of OLB requires the creation of website, webpages and links to other related information. It further allows the users to submit a loan application for computing installments for repayment and other related information. Two of the popular languages of Internet have been used for the implementation of OLB. Due to proprietary nature of the application, certain implementation details are not provided in this paper.

Relationship concept and customer services: a case study of corporate banking

The main objective of this paper is to investigate the application of relationship marketing in the context of corporate banking using McKinsey's Seven-S framework of shared values, strategy, structure, systems, staff, skills, and style. Personal interviews with 42 account relationship managers from a large multinational bank in Singapore, with a strong niche in corporate banking, provided the inputs for this investigation. The analysis leads to the identification of major conditions, which should be present for the implementation of the relationship marketing concept in an organization.

Singapore: Money Laundering — Legal Implications for Financial Institutions

In October 1995, the Singapore Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) with the assistance of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the US Drug Enforcement Administration, uncovered a multi‐million dollar global money‐laundering syndicate run by a North American drug syndicate using a Singapore bank. The CAD recovered S$5.4m stashed in the bank. It was Singapore's largest money‐laundering case. The joint investigators found that the drug syndicate used couriers to smuggle money physically into Singapore between 1989 and 1992. The cash was laundered through money‐changers in Singapore and in the Middle East. Some of the illegal cash found its way into a secret Asian Currency Unit (ACU) account in the Singapore bank. The ACU account was in the name of an account holder who was arrested in Canada for drug trafficking. He surrendered the balance of S$5.4m found in the ACU account to the CAD after a Confiscation Order was issued by the Subordinate Court. The Canadian authorities believe this amount is ‘just the tip of the iceberg’. Since money laundering is not an extraditable offence, the account holder was not prosecuted in Singapore. The bank used by the syndicate was also not prosecuted for money laundering.

The effects of interactive leadership on human resource management in Singapore's banking industry

Reviewing the literature about interactive leadership and its effects on human resource management in business organizations, this paper proposes that interactive leadership has two major components: interaction skills and team building. Both components have positive effects on employees' trust in their leaders, on employees' motivation and employees' commitment to their companies. Based on these hypotheses, the paper develops an empirical test of the effectiveness of interactive leadership in Singapore's banking industry. Seventy-seven middle-level managers participated in this study by responding to a questionnaire about their leaders, their motivation, their commitment and their trust in these leaders. The results support the hypotheses and suggest some important implications for human resource management in business organizations, especially for human resource management in Oriental societies.

The Fuzzy Industry Maturity Grid (FIMG)

Introduces the Fuzzy Industry Maturity Grid as an extension of the Industry Maturity Grid for diagnosing an industry, to identify fast‐growing sectors and to map out growth strategies for sectors showing signs of maturity. By incorporating fuzzy set theory and aggregation models in decision making, the conventional Industry Maturity Grid is enhanced from a qualitative analysis to a semi‐quantitative method which captures an expert′s knowledge of the industry, inclusive of his judgement. It does this via using a linguistic scale describing the characteristics under each of the three main dimensions of the IMG to form fuzzy sets; a hierarchical aggregation of information based on fuzzy aggregation operators; and a conceptual cube to determine the rank and ranking size of the prescribed strategies. Illustrates the application of the Fuzzy Industry Maturity Grid with an example on the Singapore banking industry.

Linear programming for bank portfolio management in Singapore

James Tobin's portfolio theory can be applied to bank portfolio management in that a bank would maximise the rates of return of its portfolio of assets, subject to the expected degree of risk and liquidity. Chambers and Charnes (1961), Cohen and Hammer (1967), Booth and Dash (1979) and others apply the linear programming model to the management of bank funds. This paper carries out a linear programming analysis on the consolidated balance sheets of commercial banks in Singapore for the period 1978–1983. The results show that by and large banks do try to maximise the returns of their portfolio, subject to legal, policy, bounding and total asset constraints, which denote riskiness and liquidity of the portfolio of assets. In a direct way, banks conform to the portfolio choice theory; they have to balance yield and liquidity against security. Although the computer cannot replace a manager, linear programming can serve as a useful guide.

An Analysis of the Singapore Banking Market

The development of the Singapore banking market over the last 15 years is examined and the issue of “overbanking” within the entry barriers framework is considered. Three measures covering profitability, sources of funds, and business development were used to assess the performance of the market. The results indicated that the market is expanding and that every member is enjoying a growing share.

Credit scoring for commercial loans: The case of Singapore

This paper develops a credit scoring model which incorporates financial ratios as inputs by applying the statistical technique of discriminant analysis. The objective is to identify and analyse the common financial characteristics which distinguish bad from good accounts. The sample is drawn from the loan portfolio of a major local bank in Singapore. The results indicate that there is a 95 per cent classification accuracy for the model presented.

Measuring the Marketing Orientation of Retail Operations of International Banks

Intense competition in banking has forced retail banks to take greater interest in customer‐oriented approaches. Because of the increased interest in consumer banking and consumer responses to banking activity, bankers need better ways to evaluate their performance in the consumer banking area. The relationship between the marketing orientation of a bank and consumer satisfaction with its retail operations is examined, using a questionnaire sent to the marketing manager/general manager of each full licence bank in Singapore. Efficiency and courtesy are the most important attributes to customer satisfaction, followed by location convenience. By identifying the order of importance of attributes managers can concentrate their promotional and operational efforts on the more important attributes to achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Biological Notes and New Synonymy in Forcipomyia (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

Biological notes are given on 2 species of Forcipomyia midges that are parasitized by the hymenopteran genus Forcipestricis Burks (Encyrtidae). Forcipomyia (Forcipomyia) picea (Winnertz) (synonym: F. simulata Walley, NEW SYN.) breeds under tree bark in Europe and North America. Forcipomyia (Microhelea) fuliginosa (Meigen) is worldwide in distribution, and larvae have been found under damp tree bark in Brazil, on wood in Puerto Rico, from a mossy log in Costa Rica, from bromeliads in Trinidad, from rotting leaves of Musa in Ghana, and from mosses, liverworts, and algae on a clay bank in Singapore. Forcipomyia intonsa Chan and LeRoux from Singapore is a synonym of F. fuliginosa (NEW SYN.).

The Asian Dollar Market

Since October 1968, the foreign and indigenous banks in Singapore have developed a market in Euro-dollars. Although referred to as the Asian dollar market, it is really an Asian-based market in Euro-dollars, there being no basic difference -- other than the geographical aspect -- between Euro-dollars and Asian dollars. Nevertheless, because the term "Asian dollar market" (ADM) is now widely used and is also helpful in denoting the geographical context of the market, it will be employed throughout this paper rather than such terms as "Asian currency markets," or "Asian-based Euro-dollars."