- To follow up on our previous study on the international development of retail banks (International: an El Dorado for French retail banks? Strategies and challenges, November 2006), we chose to take the angle of the current financial crisis as a triggering factor for a possible redrawing of the map of the global retail market
- We still feel this is a good angle. However, we believe that analyzing the crisis in the foreword could be dangerous, or in any case premature. Given the pace at which the situation changes, the unpredictable markets and lack of global visibility:
-These past few weeks, the news of one day has often rendered the most talked about studies and predictions of the previous day obsolete
-The growing interventionism of governments and other institutions in the bailout of their banks was not sufficient to quickly stop the markets from plunging
- We will therefore avoid an unreliable analysis of an unpredictable situation, and rather analyze the basic development trends of retail banks on the international markets by answering two questions:
-Is the crisis liable to durably change the status of the global retail market?
-What are the main new challenges for global players?