Capital Bank is a bank based in Ghana. It has a total of 65 branches across the country and also offers online banking (access to services via computer) and telephone banking (access to customer service agents over the telephone) to its customers. Recently, Capital Bank also began offering its customers a range of mobile banking services, which can be accessed from customers’ smartphones and tablet computers. Its customer-base is made up of both private individuals and business customers. The range of services it offers include: Current accounts, Savings accounts, Credit card Business and personal loans mortgage (loans for property purchase).

The Capital Bank’s vision is to be the bank that gives back to its customers and their purpose is ‘to help the people and businesses in Ghana to live better lives and achieve their ambitions’. In order to achieve this, the bank’s values are stated as:

1. Putting customers’ needs first, which involves anticipating and understanding customers’ needs and making products and services accessible to as many customers as possible. The Capital Bank has recently invested heavily in IT security to prevent fraud and also invested to make more services accessible to disabled and visually impaired customers.
2. Making business simple, which involves identifying opportunities to simplify activities and communicating clearly and openly.
3. Making a difference to the communities they serve, which involves primarily helping the disadvantaged and new homeowners but also supporting small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and acting fairly and responsibly at all times.

Extracts from the Capital Bank’s balanced scorecard are shown below:

Performance measure	2021 (Actual)	2021 (Target)
Financial perspective:
Return on capital employed (ROCE)	11%	12%
Interest income	GH¢7.5m	GH¢7m
Net interest margin (margin achieved on interest income)	2.4%	2.5%
Amount of new lending to SMEs	GH¢135m	GH¢150m
Customer perspective
Number of first time home buyers given a mortgage by the Capital Bank	86,000	80,000
Number of complaints (per 1,000 customers)	1.5	2
Number of talking cash points installed for the visually	120	100

impaired
Number of wheelchair ramps installed in branches	55	50
Internal processes
Number of business processes within the bank re-engineered	110	100
Number of new services made available through ‘mobile banking’	2	5
Incidences of fraud on customers’ accounts on credit cards (per 1,000 customers)	3	10
Total carbon dioxide emissions (tonnes)	430,000	400,000
Learning and growth
Number of colleagues trained to provide advice to SMEs	1,300	1,500
Number of hours (paid for by the Bank) to support community projects	1,020,000	1,000,000
Number of trainee positions taken up by candidates from Ghana’s most disadvantaged areas.	1,990	2,000
Number of community organizations supported (either through funding or by volunteers from Capital Bank.	7,250	7,000

Required:

1. Explain why the balanced scorecard approach to performance measurement is more useful to measure performance for the Capital Bank than a traditional approach using solely financial performance measures. 
2. Using all of the information provided, including the Capital Bank’s vision and values, discuss the performance of the Bank in 2021.

NB: Use each of the four heading of the balanced scorecard to structure your discussion.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The balanced scorecard approach to performance measurement is more useful to measure performance for the Capital Bank than a traditional approach using solely financial performance measures because it ... View the full answer