A Technology and Management Perspective on Performance in Private and State-owned Banks – Bangladesh Cases

Abstract: Abstract Title: Comparative Study Between Private and State-owned Banks: Technology and Management Perspectives Author: Khan, Enamul Haque Supervisor: Catherine Lions   Background: Bangladesh is a lower developing country with limited resources and income. In Bangladesh, both private and state-owned banks operate side by side but under dissimilar conditions. State-owned banks are obviously overstaffed but secured by the government guarantee while private banks need to be competitive and profitable to survive. Two major competitive factors are technology innovation and good governance system. Private banks in Bangladesh are providing complete online solutions and function with a decentralized management while state-owned banks behave opposite due to government’s traditional attitude. Therefore it is relevant to explore what the state-owned bank can learn from the private bank so that the former can be more effective and profitable like private banks. Purpose: The purpose is to explore what the state-owned bank can learn from its private competitor. My first purpose is to analyze the functioning of technological improvements that, due to generation change, are vital for banks in developing countries. Secondly, since good governance is necessary for the organization to be efficient, I want to identify the main differences between state-owned and private banks that influence the performance. Finally, how to adapt these issues by state-owned banks to improve the performance is other purpose of this study. Method: Unstructured interviews with qualitative approach were carried by interviewing a private bank and a state-owned bank expertise. Primary data collected through telephone interviews helps to identify the practice in the different ownership systems and how growth factors work. Secondary data works as accelerator of the primary data. Conclusion: I have found that state-owned banks have three major problems are: Poor IT infrastructure, clumsy managerial governance working on regulatory bindings and political influence. To overcome these problems, state-owned banks should try to move towards decentralization of managerial activities and meet the technology standard requirements. Key words: Information Technology (IT), Private Bank, State-owned Bank, Developing Countries, Management, Ownership, Government, Regulation, Politics, Interview, Primary and Secondary Data.