European banks might save 40 billion euros

Because of the decrease of their income, european banks could try to save 35 to 40 billion euros. They would do so by reducing their costs, especially their commercialization costs.
This is a new wave of reduction of costs, which follows several previous ones. The purpose here is to decrease their basic costs by 15%, which corresponds to 35 to 40 billion euros. To reach this goal, banks will have to make their distribution network profitable, in which they invested a lot during their growth era. They opened new agencies, developped new means of commercialization (Internet, phone), and spent money in big communication campaigns.
The distribution network is by far the main expenditure item for banks. Reducing cost might then require smaller agencies, or even less agencies. It might also require developping sales on the Internet, and finding a better evaluation of returns on investment of the marketing expeditures.
Banks might also try to develop more simple products. That would correspond to what consumers wish, and would make bankers more aware of what they trade.

Francois-Xavier Motte

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