Relationship Marketing and Commercial Banking: A CriticalAnalysis

Competitive pressures as well as the search for fee‐based incomes, mainly derived from cross‐selling, have forced commercial financial institutions to redefine their marketing strategies and to focus on “relationship marketing”. Identifies the major problems raised by the implementation of an effective relationship approach. From this critical analysis, concludes that relationship banking is a major corporate issue, not the sole responsibility of front‐line people (account managers) – marketing and strategic issues are merging.