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Medium Profitability Cost-Cutting

Great Western Bank

#Financial Services

Practice this intermediate profitability case interview question in the Financial Services sector. Includes detailed problem prompt, clarifying questions, structured framework, and expert recommendation. Part of ProHub's 835+ consulting case library.

ProHub Comment

This case tests quantitative analysis of a profitability problem requiring candidates to diagnose root causes using financial data (revenue decline driven by interest rate compression), then balance short-term cost-cutting with customer retention risks revealed through market research. The case emphasizes that naive cost-cutting without understanding customer economics can destroy more value than it saves.

Estimated Time 26 minutes
Difficulty Medium
Source ICC
50 / 100
Our client is a small retail bank in the United States called Great Western Bank (GWB). GWB has 50 branches across the Western United States. In the past two years, the company has experienced a decline in profitability, and their CEO has sought our help to identify the root cause for the decline and see if we can help GWB address the problem. How would you advise the CEO?

Clarifying Information

  1. As a retail bank, GWB provides checking and savings accounts to members of the public, rather than companies. It then uses these deposits to make loans, also to individuals.
  2. GWB generates revenue by making three types of loans: mortgages, auto loans, and personal loans. The bank’s assets are evenly allocated across these types of loans and its Central Bank reserves (i.e. 25% in each of the four categories).
  3. Profitability has fallen by $34M over the last two years.
  4. GWB has approximately 300,000 customers and $4.4B in interest-bearing deposits
Mock Interview
Interviewer

Our client is a small retail bank in the United States called Great Western Bank (GWB). GWB has 50 branches across the Western United States. In the past two years, the company has experienced a decline in profitability, and their CEO has sought our help to identify the root cause for the decline and see if we can help GWB address the problem. How would you advise the CEO?

You

Thanks. Before analyzing, I'd like to clarify a few key questions...

Interviewer

Good question. Let me provide some background information...

You

Based on this, I suggest analyzing from these dimensions...

AI Score
Structure Analysis Communication Business Sense Quantitative
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Practice this case with AI Mock Interview

🤖 AI Summary: Great Western Bank faces a $34M profitability decline over two years. Analysis reveals the primary cause is falling interest rates (20% decline) rather than volume issues, creating an industry-wide competitive pricing pressure. While cost-cutting opportunities exist, the critical insight emerges when market research shows that high-value customers use ancillary services (notaries), making service elimination risky despite $7.5M savings potential. The recommended approach balances efficiency (cross-training staff) with revenue growth initiatives (M&A, branch expansion).

💡 Key Insights:

  1. Root cause diagnosis requires separating volume trends from pricing trends; GWB’s market share remained flat while interest rates fell 20%, indicating industry-wide compression not competitive loss
  2. Customer segmentation analysis reveals that high-deposit customers disproportionately use ancillary services; eliminating services could trigger $720M deposit loss ($30M revenue impact), vastly exceeding $7.5M cost savings
  3. Cost-cutting must be evaluated against hidden revenue risks; the case demonstrates that financial analysis alone is insufficient—qualitative customer insights are essential to avoid destroying shareholder value
  4. Operational efficiency opportunities exist at intersection of cost and value; cross-training bank staff as notaries preserves customer relationships while capturing cost savings

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