Banking outsourcing refers to entrusting the original internal work to others through contracts. It is an important tool for banks to cope with the increasingly fierce market competition and an effective means for banks to actively adjust their strategies and realize their core values. According to the contents of bank outsourcing, there are information technology outsourcing (ITO), business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge processing outsourcing (KPO).
First, the international trend of banking outsourcing
In recent years, commercial banks have expanded the scope of business outsourcing for reasons such as strategic planning, cost control, improving customer satisfaction and enhancing core competitiveness, which has led to the rapid development of banking outsourcing. By 2004, the outsourcing scale of financial industry had increased by more than 20%. According to the survey of the financial research and service company Tower Group(2006), the information technology outsourcing business of the world's largest 15 financial service enterprises is expected to increase from $6,543.86 billion in 2004 to $3.89 billion in 2008, with an average annual growth rate of 34%. With the continuous expansion of the outsourcing business scale of international banks, there are three major development trends:
(a) The scope of outsourcing continues to expand.
The development of bank outsourcing represents the great changes and challenges experienced by the banking industry in the past 30 years. Banking outsourcing began with information technology outsourcing (ITO), which mainly involves new business processing systems such as bank communication network management, bank information system management, application system development and maintenance, system backup, disaster recovery, self-service, call center, online banking, data analysis system and office automation system. Business process outsourcing (BPO) is to outsource the whole operation process of a business, such as the whole IT system, rather than a specific task. Focus on supporting bank internal operations and customer back-office services. Through the optimized combination of business processes, the production efficiency and competitiveness of the whole business can be improved, and profits can be obtained in a wider range. Banks need to redesign their business processes to obtain higher business value. With the development of the world banking industry, more and more professional knowledge at all levels is needed. With the continuous innovation of banking business, it is not enough for banks to rely solely on their own R&D in order to win in the competition. Therefore, many banks, especially small and medium-sized banks, outsource R&D to a special R&D center, that is, knowledge processing outsourcing (KPO). Universities and scientific research institutions can give full play to their own advantages and provide knowledge processing outsourcing services for banks.
(B) changes in the identity of outsourcing service providers
With the change of outsourcing content from information technology outsourcing (ITO) to business process outsourcing (BPO) and then to knowledge processing outsourcing (KPO), the status of outsourcing service providers is constantly changing, and the relationship between banks and outsourcing service providers is also changing from traditional service providers to strategic partners of contracting institutions. It is embodied in the following aspects: first, the cooperation between the employer and the outsourcing service provider tends to be long-term, and strategic outsourcing is often used to achieve one or several long-term strategic goals; Second, the goal of strategic outsourcing is vague and needs to change with time, and the amount is often large; Third, in order to better develop the core advantage banking business, the contracted banks will simultaneously divest the internal staff related to the outsourcing business, streamline the organization and concentrate their manpower on the core advantage business; Fourth, more and more banks choose to entrust a business to a third party as a whole and no longer engage in this business themselves.
(C) Offshore business outsourcing development
According to Deloitte & Touche's report, in 2003, 67% of the global financial services companies have set up offshore business institutions, and another 65,438+03% companies said that they are planning to transfer some of their businesses overseas. It is estimated that in the five years after 2004, US$ 356 billion (accounting for 15% of the cost of this industry) will be outsourced overseas. In 2065./2065. 100000000606, the proportion of offshore business outsourcing used by large financial institutions is much higher than that of small financial institutions, and more and more financial institutions have established their own offshore business centers. Financial research and service companies also predict that offshore outsourcing of financial institutions will increase at a rate of 65,438+05% in the next 8-65,438+00 years for the sake of cost saving, competitive advantage and global service.
Second, China banking outsourcing problems and causes analysis
With the integration of China's banking industry with the world, some domestic banks began to try to get involved in outsourcing business, mainly focusing on IT-related business and credit card business. In addition to ITO business, some banks began to try BP (), and the business of personnel recruitment, credit card sales, back-office processing, wealth management business promotion, market development, pre-lending and post-lending investigation also showed a trend of outsourcing. Judging from the development trend in recent years, the outsourcing of domestic financial institutions is still in its infancy and needs to be gradually improved. In the short term, the implementation of bank outsourcing still faces great resistance. The existing problems and reasons are:
(1) The outsourcing business is mainly limited to IT outsourcing, and the security and confidentiality need to be improved.
This is of course the immature performance of the domestic outsourcing market, and IT is also because of the high cost of IT technology. In order to reduce the cost, it is easy to choose outsourcing first. IT is also an IT system. When it comes to the core business of banks, such as data center management and maintenance, data backup, etc., it is difficult for banks to choose outsourcing because of the requirements of security and confidentiality.
(B) the lack of qualification examination system, the lack of excellent service providers
Lack of qualification examination system and access rating system for outsourcing service providers can not effectively evaluate the technical strength, operating conditions, social reputation and other factors of outsourcers. It is difficult for domestic banks to choose enterprises with strong competitive strength and guaranteed technology as outsourcing partners.
(C) the law is not perfect, the lack of dispute resolution mechanism
There are many risks in banking outsourcing: some outsourcing service providers have poor service quality and fraud, outsourcing service providers do not have enough financial resources to complete the signing work, and outsourcing service providers cannot strictly abide by customer privacy. Once disputes arise, on the one hand, there is a lack of outsourcing dispute handling procedures and systems based on laws and rules; On the other hand, banks may have to pay social and economic costs and bear potential risks.
(D) The supervision system is immature and the risk prevention is not perfect.
While reducing the cost, outsourcing also brings many problems and hidden dangers, such as weakening the control right of banking business and aggravating potential risks. However, domestic regulators have not yet established effective risk prevention measures and supervision system to cope with the rapidly developing new business operation mode. So far, China Banking Regulatory Commission, China Securities Regulatory Commission and China Insurance Regulatory Commission have not issued clear guidance documents on financial outsourcing, nor have they established a standardized and effective outsourcing monitoring system.
(e) The banking industry still has considerable resistance to the application of disaster recovery outsourcing.
For example, the main reasons are imperfect laws and regulations, imperfect social credit system and users' vague understanding of disaster recovery outsourcing services and outsourcing service providers. Because there are only a handful of disaster recovery outsourcing service providers, most users choose to build their own, which not only requires very high capital and technology for enterprises, but also wastes national resources greatly. In order to improve the disaster recovery ability of the banking industry, only by means of socialized and specialized disaster recovery outsourcing services.
Third, suggestions for improvement of banking outsourcing in China
(1) Banks of different sizes should choose outsourcing routes in combination with existing resources.
(1) big banks-comprehensive business model. Only larger banks can realize effective economies of scale and scope through resource integration. Therefore, large banks will tend to integrate business strategies, expand core business and concentrate resources to enhance core competitiveness. Outsourcing of large banks can take two forms: one is outsourcing to wholly-owned subsidiaries or branches of banks; The other is outsourcing to professional companies or specialized small and medium-sized banks in the social financial service industry.
(2) Small and medium-sized banks-specialized development model. Usually, banks act as contractors in business outsourcing, but in some cases of business process outsourcing, banks can act as outsourcing service providers, especially small and medium-sized banks, and choose to adopt a professional development model to undertake business outsourcing of other banks or banking affairs outsourcing of enterprises in other industries together with other professional companies.
(3) Professional companies established by powerful banks-become outsourcing service providers in the banking market. Powerful large banks often set up new companies with outsourcing information technology companies based on the internal information technology departments of banks, and undertake the business outsourced by other banks while serving banks.
(4) Professional financial service companies-gradually participate in such links as decision-making research and development, functional support, background processing and front-end customers. Most of the existing outsourcing activities in the banking industry include "functional support" and "background processing", while some financial service companies mainly focus on transaction services. For example, State Street Bank is the largest custodian in the world, managing about 65,438+05% of global securities.
(5) Non-financial institutions-entering the banking value chain through cooperation and joint ventures. Non-financial institutions with advantages in customer interface, such as large supermarkets with important influence in channel terminals, cooperate with banks at the product level to provide customers with banking products and services; At an appropriate time, they are allowed to intervene in the value chain of banks through capital ties in the form of joint ventures with banks, participate in the "front desk customers" link, develop into "marketing distributors" of the banking industry, and participate in the competition and cooperation of the entire banking market.
(B) a clear outsourcing strategy, and gradually expand the scope of outsourcing business
We should gradually expand the scope of domestic banking outsourcing. In addition to the established outsourcing business, we can also consider outsourcing some emerging businesses, such as market research outsourcing, internal audit outsourcing, credit card outsourcing, disaster recovery outsourcing and so on. Domestic banks should focus on three tasks when choosing outsourcing strategies: first, properly grasp the degree of outsourcing; The second is to find and cultivate strategic alliances; The third is to gradually involve the core business.
(3) Improve the credit rating mechanism of outsourcers and select suitable outsourcers.
After choosing outsourcing business, banks must formulate standards and evaluate the qualifications, capabilities and potential risks of service providers in order to complete outsourcing activities effectively, reliably and with high standards. Once an incompetent service provider is selected, the potential loss to bank operation, customer resources and reputation will be enormous. The factors to be considered when choosing an outsourcer are: good industry reputation and rich experience in outsourcing services, understanding of business and ability to implement business integration, mature management methods and processes, established service system and professional team, capabilities and technologies that enterprises do not have, and reasonable and acceptable prices. In addition, the values, cultural background, management concepts and management methods of both sides are the basis for future cooperation. Domestic financial institutions should establish and improve the qualification examination/credit rating system for outsourcing service providers. Generally speaking, a suitable outsourcer should have the following basic conditions: he is qualified and has enough resources to complete the outsourcing work to ensure that he can understand and realize the bank's goals in this activity; Economic ability to perform obligations.
Risk management of outsourcing
Domestic financial institutions need to do three things well when managing outsourcing risks: first, contract design. A perfect contract can avoid disputes and disputes between the two parties in future cooperation to the greatest extent. There should be some room for signing contracts to adapt to the changing environment; The second is to formulate a risk control plan. The outsourcing risk management plan should include monitoring all relevant aspects of outsourcing agreements and procedures so as to take corrective measures when certain events occur. Banks can formulate protection steps according to their own internal security measures, effectively supervise and control external contractors, and check whether the operation mode of service institutions is consistent with the requirements of banks at any time to ensure that service providers have the same security level as banks; The third is to formulate emergency plans. When outsourcing service providers and banks repeatedly breach the contract and lack perfect emergency plans, it will lead to serious business and financial losses for banks. Banks should predict the consequences of service interruption or other potential problems of outsourcing service providers as concretely as possible, and formulate emergency plans in advance or through consultation between the two parties to ensure that outsourcing service providers have the ability to maintain appropriate information technology security and disaster recovery when necessary.
(5) Improve the legal environment and strengthen external supervision.
(1) Create a good legal environment. At present, the development of banking outsourcing in China lacks guiding opinions and legal provisions. Perfect laws can ensure the healthy and orderly development of the outsourcing market. It should include the scope of outsourcing; Normality of outsourcing contract; Access mechanism and credit rating mechanism of outsourcing service providers, rights and obligations of financial institutions and service providers in outsourcing; Procedures and mechanisms for handling disputes arising from outsourcing; Relevant technical standards, etc.
(2) Establish outsourcing supervision system. In principle, the construction of financial outsourcing supervision system should follow the following four principles: first, the principle of legality; The second is the principle of risk control; The third is the principle of protecting the legitimate rights and interests of customers; The fourth is the principle of effective supervision.