Please read the following reading materials and analyze the case with the insights you have learned in the course of Business Optimization Theory. COVID-19 has impacted world's economy at large. Certainly, the banking sector was not exempt from the dire impact of COVID-19, with the effects gravely cutting across the financial entities themselves, their processes, shareholders, staff, customers, products and services offerings, and other stakeholders, among others. Banks have had to re-strategize and re-prioritize and can no longer go back to their old ways of operations, which now need to establish new ways of measuring profitability and output/productivity of their staff, with the introduction of the shift system as a way of observing some COVID-19 protocols. Since the start of the coronavirus, consumer demand for digital banking has never been greater. It is time the banking sector accelerate its speed towards integrating alternative banking channels and the use of advanced technology to serve both its internal and external customers As a striking member of HSBC, First Direct is a telephone and Internet based retail bank in the United Kingdom. First Direct has 1.45 million customers who never visit a bank branch or head office but still deposits and access credits and other banking offerings at lower fees and charges and higher interest rates on their savings accounts. In 2019, First Direct has launched a new co-creation lab within its app to invite customers to co-create new products by giving users the opportunity to test new ideas and offer direct feedback to the bank. In addition to the consumer-focused First Direct, HSBC is separately working on a new digital business banking service known internally as Project Iceberg. The approach compares with rival Royal Bank of Scotland, which is building a pair of new standalone digital banks Bo for consumers and Mettle for business customers