BOV outlines eight strategic focal points for 2003/04

Over the next fiscal year Bank of Valletta will be aiming to maximise shareholder value through an improvement in Group profitability and turn the bank into a marketing-driven organisation and enhance cost-efficiency.
Bank of Valletta Group Chairman Joseph F.X. Zahra cited these elements as the main factors that will drive BOV’s strategy over the coming months during a full day strategy forum for the Group’s top management and executives.
Mr Zahra stated that BOV would be focusing on eight major strategic points throughout the forthcoming financial year. Amongst these are the added focus on the BOV Brand promise, quality cross-selling and constant product review and development that will consolidate BOV’s marketing strategy. Following the previous years’ emphasis on credit and on market risk, the Group will give added focus on Operational Risk through a holistic view of the various exposures.
The new operations center currently under construction in St Venera will host the first operations in December 2004 and be fully operational by July 2005. BOV’s multi-channel strategy, with its recently updated and highly successful 24x7 package will be further enhanced with more updates and the launching of new alternative delivery channels. BOV will also dedicate more focused attention to SMEs, given the importance, funding and co-financing opportunities the EU is giving to these enterprises.
The BOV Chairman reiterated that the financial year just ended had been a positive one. A new strategic partner for VFM heralded positive results in Fund Management and BOV was short listed by the Institute of Financial Services (UK) as having one of the most innovative Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies in the world. BOV continued to gear up for Malta’s forthcoming accession into the European Union by creating an EU steering committee.
z"A well planned and coherent strategy for the Group enabled the rate of growth on non-interest cost to be the lowest in 11 years," Zahra adds.