Handbook of Commercial Banking is the first book to comprehensively address strategic planning issues in the financial industry. Based on the author's extensive consultancy experience, the book develops a flexible plan to help banking professionals think through the strategic issues of this important financial sector. Beginning with a discussion on the need for a commercial banking strategy and the affects this has on the banks and their competition, the book moves on to outline various issues including; the role of marketing in commercial banking; relationship banking and the branch office network; private and direct banking; pricing financial products and services and credit and market risk. The author has also included a large range of case-studies which are geographically diverse and will provide the reader with a valuable breadth of reference.

Dimitris N. Chorafas served on the faculty of the Catholic University of America and as Visiting Professor at Washington State University, George Washington University, University of Vermont, University of Florida, and Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States, as well as the University of Alberta, Technical University of Karlsruhe, Ecole d'Etudes Industrielles de l'Université de Genève, Ecole Polytechnic Fédérale de Lausanne, Polish Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences. More than 8,000 banking, industrial and government executives participated in his seminars in the United States, England, Germany, Italy, other European countries, Asia and Latin America. Chorafas is the author of 160 books, translated into several languages world-wide.

THE NEED FOR COMMERCIAL BANKING STRATEGY Money, the Banks and the Bankers Goals of a Strategy in Retail Banking Financial Services Offered by Banks and Non-Banks Strategic Planning and the Quality of Services in Retail Banking Facing the Invasion of the Banks' Business by Mutual Funds and Managing the Process of Change MARKETING AND COMPETITION Retail Banking Strategies and the Marketing Functions Relationship Banking, Customer Mirror, and the Branch Office Network A Popular Marketing Policy: Direct Banking The Profitable Business of Private Banking Wealth Management, Banking Contracts and Lasting Customer Relationships PRICING AND PROFITABILITY Setting a Pattern of Products, Markets and Bank Profitability Managing Research and Development in Retail Banking Economic and Financial Studies which Affect Investment Policies The Choice of a Strategy for Loans Pricing Financial Products and Services