A three-phase methodology for developing or evaluating bank networks

One basic characteristic of modern society, besides the fast spread of information, is the increased use of banking services in order to fulfil consumer needs. Apart from their income, modern consumers rely to an increasing extent on banking services and money transactions as well, in order to buy consumer products and cover their financial needs. Thus the new standards of the ‘consumer society’ significantly affect the role and the importance of banking services. The end of the monopoly era characterized by increased competition leads banks to modify their strategies, to provide more and better services, to reorganize their structure and expand or merge their networks. In this context we propose a three-phase methodology for developing and/or evaluating banking networks. The above methodology calculates an ‘attractiveness index’ for each area, and combines geographic information systems with demand covering models so as to propose the best network structure.