Spend less on R&D :

Banks major advertisers

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The banks are one of the highest spenders in advertising and less percentage is spend on research and development.

The financial sector has limited spending on research and development and R & D labs are lacking.

The heavy advertising cause significant customer confusion in branding because of sub brands are use loosely, MTI Consulting CEO Hilmy Cader said. The sector needs to simplify the brand architecture by re-thinking on the entire branding concept. The application of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as a basis of relationship, value proposition and marketing communication is vital for the industry, he said at the MTI Banking and Financial Services Forum on Re-strategizing; financial services in Sri Lanka held yesterday in Colombo. The financial services have an integrated role to play in applied finance to facilitate economic and business development.

Financial service is any opportunity to save, invest, borrow, spend, transact, trade, transfer, insure and provide advisory.

The country's banking sector needs to be re-strategize to over come the challenges.

The Sri Lankan banking sector has a unique opportunity to make a change in the banking sector as the country has a stable political and economic environment. The efforts taken to keep the interest rates down are timely, MTI Corporate Finance Associate Mano Tittawella said.

Sri Lanka needs to look at the whole approach differently and in a cost effective manner.

It is necessary to create businesses that are viable thus encouraging the set up of SMEs.

"Our financial institutions need to think regionally as they have all the necessary inputs.

They need to play a major role in the regional financial industry," he said.