A Framework for Strategic Planning
Exhibits:
Strategic
Restructuring at a Hypothetical S&L
Simulating the Risk-Reward
Trade-Off
Strategic Alternatives:
1982 the powers of thrift institution
increased significantly (Garn-St.Germain Depository Institutions Act) by
enlarging the range of business activities, which represent strategic options
for the management; among them: commercial loans, investment in real estate,
trust and stock brokerage services, real estate brokerage services, adjustable-rate
mortgages (ARMs), and on the liability side deposits across the maturity
spectrum. That leads to the following considerations that influence the
strategic planning (in broad terms):
-1.)assessment of where the company currently stands,
-2.)future positioning of the institution.
-3.)action plans to move from 1.) to 2.)
Among the Specific questions the management should focus on there are three areas of specific importance:
A.)Extent of Rate Exposure:
How much of a portfolio
should be reasonably matched by year X? This will depend upon a mixture
of management's propensity for risk, its assessment of the future economic
and financial environment, the strength of the firms net worth position
as well as analysis of its current strength and weaknesses.
B.)Size: The
growth element is seldom addressed as intensely as its importance would
require. Even though growth is a somewhat subjective factor, depending
upon management's perception of its own capability and its desire to develop,
it must be controlled and directed, in order to have it not "just occurring".
Any reasonable plan contains growth element as well as repositioning in
achieving the portfolio mix.
C.)Extent of Diversity:
Is dependant on the
management's willingness of exploring new areas. The alternative of staying
close to the institution's business lines is not a discovery of other areas
with the principle of "try and error". Such kind of policy will incur an
absorption of sizeable amounts of both financial and management resources.
D.)Market Orientation.
Throughout most of
their history thrift institutions have been closely controlled, therefore
they had a limited variety of products to offer. According to this constraints,
which already determined more or less the positioning and diversification
of the thrift's marketing, they behaved rather product- than market-orientated.
The current, less regulated environment means the possibility to offer
a variety of new products and thereby access to a broader market, with
marketing implications, comparable to these of general retailers. Consequently
thrift institutions have to execute the transition from product-orientation
to market-orientation. Marketing-strategies of highly competitive general
should be challenged and concepts for financial institutions should be
derived. Primary among the techniques that retailers utilise is the concept
of market-driven positioning. This involves carefully examining the markets
the firm wants to serve, and as a conclusion fostering the types of products
those participants want, rather than attempting to force existing products
into the market. Besides the determination of the size of the market range
the institution wants to appeal, it has to decide about the size of the
product line. (i.e. broad product line = "financial supermarket", or concentrating
on a niche in the market).
Strategic
Restructuring at a Hypothetical S&L
Short term positioning: Asset-Liability or "Gap"-Management:
Shifts of asset and liability positions are undertaken over an extended period of time by varying business mix and overall growth. Asset-liability management has the same overall objective of portfolio distribution but the timing is shorter and the alternatives are more limited.
In a normal yield curve environment the choice of raising funds on a maturity spectrum incurs the conflict between profit increase and risk decrease. (Short term-funds cost less than longer-term funds but cause more interest rate exposure).
Economic audits are considered as the main tool of asset-liability management. It is a simulation which allows to assess profitability under different conditions in terms of economic, as well as policy guidelines. This simulation is based on economic and financial modelling process that links the performance of an individual financial intermediary with overall economic activity.
Generally speaking it can be stated, that the asset liability
policy is based on a trade off between higher risk or lower profit - and
vice versa. In past years thrift institutions had to experience one extreme:
taking too high risks, whereas the other extreme nowadays seems to be fashionable:
a "matched book" between asset and liability maturities (or repricing intervals),
which would eliminate risks, but profits as well. Besides not generating
sufficient income, matched books would also mean to neglect a basic function
of financial intermediation: transforming maturities from lenders to borrowers.
Therefore a deliberate mismatch of the repricing intervals of assets and
liabilities has to be achieved. In order to handle this situation, measuring
methods of risk have been developed, since it is essential for a financial
institution to know the extent of risk it is taking, and how to react to
a different situation as future projection was predicting.
Measuring risk
Ratios relating the relative volume of assets to
be repriced within one year to the volume of liabilities to be repriced
within the same period is certainly not sufficient enough to show the exposure
to interest rate risk. This method is not precise,
- if rates swing widely within one year and either assets
or liabilities are concentrated at different maturities within the one
year category.
- it does not take into consideration the reinvestment
risk, which occurs from the cash flow (in form of periodic repayments)
of longer-term assets
Therefore several methods with different degree of sophistication
have been developed. One of them is based on the maturity ratio as mentioned
above. Assets and liabilities are grouped into repricing intervals (one
to three months). Then the dollar volume of funds within one category is
weighted by the average maturity of that category and aggregated over the
repricing intervals. That effects that liabilities or assets in longer
maturity categories get larger weights. (It is a prerequesite that these
intervals represent the effective repricing interval, and not the contractual
interval.
Simulating the Risk-Reward
Trade-Off
Conclusion/Summary:
In recent years thrift institutions have been faced with underwriting, liquidity, and interest risk (caused by the volatile rate environment), and especially since 1982 (as an effect of deregulation) with concerns about their marketing strategies(especially positioning). Therefore institutions have to examine carefully strategic planning, especially focusing on restructuring portfolios to decrease interest rate exposure while maintaining a viable level of profitability.
Exhibits:
Strategic
Restructuring at a Hypothetical S&L
Simulating the Risk-Reward
Trade-Off
Richard Weberberger, Vienna 1994
Based on: Jerry E. Pohlman A Framework
for Strategic Planning
Bank Management by Dr. Peter Harold,
MBA, International Summer School 1994, WU-Wien