This dissertation is an in depth review of Habib Bank AG Zurich, its expansion all over the world through mergers with other banks of different countries. The paper is focused on the impact of the bank’s mergers on its performance in terms of profitability, services and technological advancements. In this regard the paper describes the history of bank over the years to trace the stages of bank’s development and growth at international level. The dissertation covers a wide range of information and issues related to the Habib Bank AG Zurich.
The paper also reviews the performance of Habib Bank AG Zurich in comparison with other international banks and impact of mergers of their performances. The paper reviews the strategies and policies of other bank and the impact of these policies on their expansion and profitability. Moreover the paper is aimed at highlighting the role of Habib Bank AG Zurich in promoting different corporate and personal activities and in managing assets and investment.
At present the bank deals with the customers all over the world with the assistance of different advance software and facilitates them in performing different commercial and private activities. While discussing the performance of the bank resulting from the mergers, the use of innovative technologies by the bank remains an important point of focus. Habib bank AG Zurich has also received the Middle East Banker’s award for “Best Use of Technology” in 2005 and the bank has also introduced many advanced financial services for the first time in Middle East and in other countries.
Different financial and statistical resources, research journals, newspapers, magazines and web portals are being accessed to gather authentic and ample information about Habib Bank AG Zurich and finally the paper comes up with a comprehensive description of bank’s performance in terms of financial gains, consumer services and use of technology resulting from its mergers all over the world. 1. Introduction The banking sector has witnessed wave of mergers especially after the 1990s.
The merger movement has drawn strong impacts on the performance, development and growth patterns of the banks all over the world. as the world is developing with the support of advanced and innovative technologies, the trend of cross border mergers has also increased and there is considerable rise in banks mergers observed in different parts of the world like Europe, US and Asia etc. This trend has given birth to the debate of potential impacts of mergers on the bank and their financial gains, performance and growth.
There are some theories and researches conducted to monitor the changes occurring in the growth patterns and performance of the banks after their mergers with other banks and these researches come up with different results and highlight many important aspects of mergers and their potentials effects on the banks. However these is no research been done yet that solely study the effects of mergers on the growth and performance of Habib Bank AG Zurich.
This dissertation is focus on the impacts of mergers on the profitability, growth and performance of Habib Bank AG Zurich – HBZ in comparison with other banks that either grows internally or through mergers. In this regard the paper looks at the history and branch expansion of the bank. It is observed that there are very few mergers done by the bank and it is expanded in many countries of the world mostly through opening of branches. Habib Bank AG Zurich has completed almost forty years of banking services and during this time there are some revolutionary changes occurred in the banking scenario all over the world.
The advancement in communication and technology has drawn immersed effects on the traditional patterns of banking and the banks of today are expected to provide lot more then the regular and traditional banking services. In this context the paper studies the changes that occurred in the banking services of Habib Bank AG Zurich and the way the bank keep its services align with the emerging changes and demands of the banking sector. The growth of bank is compared with two banks; Barclays and HSBC.
These two banks are selected for the comparison because both of these banks have a long history that is marked with many mergers. These mergers have played vital role in the expansion of the network of these banks. HSBC and Barclays remain involved in mergers all over the world and as a result there are many international branches of HSBC and Barclays that are working in different parts of the world. Habib Bank AG Zurich is compared with these banks to witness the effects of mergers on the banking performance and profitability of these banks.
To get better understanding of the issue the history and growth patterns of Barclays and HSBC bank are also studies so that evidence could be collected about the effects of mergers on growth of both these banks. 1. 1 Goal of the Study The study is aimed at unfolding the impacts of mergers of the growth and development of Habib Bank AG Zurich in terms of financial gains, expansion of networks and performance. The paper review the pace of development of the bank over the years in comparison with other banks Barclays Bank UK and HSBC Bank.
In this regard there are following objectives of the study • To study the history and background of Habib bank AG Zurich • To study the growth and expansion of bank’s branches network in different countries • To study the ways through which bank expand its branches network • To study the financial gains, performance and development of bank over the last forty years • To compare Habib Bank AG Zurich with Barclays Bank UK and HSBC with respect to their growth patterns and performance and profitability.
1. 2 Need for the Study The financial sector is in phase of revolutionary changes and in the highly competitive market of today it is very necessary for the bank to keep their performance aligned with the emerging trends of the sector. Responding to the wave of mergers and acquisition many banks are designing their strategies to expand their networks with the help of mergers in home country as well as in other countries.
It is very necessary that in this situation the performance of the banks must be assessed and evaluated so that there could be understanding of the matter that what mergers can do for a bank and up to what extent they effects the performance and development of a bank. This research is required to conduct so that evidences could be collected about the merger’s impacts on the bank performance and the results of the study can be reviewed and taken as guideline by the financial institutions while formulating their policies related to the mergers.
1. 3 Significance of the Study The study put forward some very important theories of banks merger and study the implications of these theories and studies on Habib Bank AG Zurich. As these is no research done yet to study the impact of mergers on the performance of Habib Bank AG Zurich specifically so this study possess great significance from the point of view of the banks performance evaluation. Moreover the study is an important attempt to underline the potential benefits and impacts of the mergers on the performance and growth of any bank.
The study also attempts to prove weather there are some effects of the mergers of bank’s performance in real or not. In this way the study provide better understanding of issues related to the mergers and their impacts. The comparison of Habib Bank AG Zurich with other banks in accordance to their growth patterns makes the study more noteworthy because the comparison further supports the theories in effective way and also underlines the changes that might occur in bank as a result of merger and also explains that in case of merger what a bank can miss.
The paper also describes the services and products of Habib Bank AG Zurich and in this way it has become an informative document that contains useful information about Habib Bank AG Zurich as well as two other banks. The private and commercial customers of banks can be get complete information about different products and services of Habib Bank AG Zurich and they can compare these with the services and products they are getting from their existing banks.
The customers and businessmen thus get an opportunity to compare and evaluate the services of their own banks and they can know about the facilities offered by different banks. 1. 4 Research Methodology The research is a qualitative study that is conducted by gathering information from both primary and secondary resources. 1. 4. 1 Research Question “To study the impact of mergers on the growth, performance and financial gains of Habib Bank AG Zurich in comparison with Barclays and HSBC” 1. 4. 2 Research Type
The research is a qualitative research study that is based on the literature review of the secondary data available related to the topic and along with the literature review, interviews of the bank’s employees are also conducted to get deep insight about the issues. Sources of Data Collection As the research is conducted through review of the literature and documents as well as interviews of the employees of the bank so there are two sources of the data collection; secondary sources and primary sources.
The Secondary sources include financial journals, banking magazines, electronic journals and magazines, books, research reports, articles, informative web portals, and websites of the related banks whereas the primary sources of information are the interviews conducted of the employees of the bank. Interviews are considered as very significant tool of research when ever it is intended to get deep insight of any issue. Hence the interviews are conducted so that opinions and information could be gathered about experiences and performance of Habib Bank AG Zurich resulting from its mergers with different banks.
An attempt was made to come up with at least 2-3 interviews so that more information could be gathered about the issue. In this regard the UK branch of Habib Bank AG Zurich was accessed and finally there are interviews conducted from the employees of HBZ. One employee has the experience of seven years at the post of Vice President of the Bank UK Branch whereas the other employee interviewed has experiences of around 2 years working as Accounts Officer in the bank.