Abstract:

Banking with private customers in the Federal Republic of Germany undergoes a radical change with economic and social consequences for our country which cannot yet be foreseen. Among others it concerns the distribution of meanwhile about 2 billions DM financial assets (see chart 3) from the about 24 millions private households by about 120 milliards DM new formation of financial assets per annum by private households. The intention of the banks is to maintain their achieved market positions on a high level, to extend them continually and on the whole to have a better grip on the costs in spite of increased expenditures - due to increasing costs in money transfer and inefficient working on the mass market the profits from the private customer's business are endangered. From the global introduction of customer self-service in the private customer business the banks expect: "More service for private customers at lower costs." But customers do not cooperate automatically was cautioned by Yola Laupheimer of Infratest-Miinchen: "Private customers have preferably emotional relations to their financial institutions which can be endangered by new communication forms and techniques of self-service." The results of the pilot project that the author undertook with a Volksbank (people's bank) in Niedersachsen show that there are customer groups appreciating self-service as additional quality of their bank, if during realisation some essential rules are observed.