PSU Bank Co.

ProHub Comment

This is an interviewer-led revenue growth case requiring the candidate to diagnose why PSU Bank's mutual fund AUM is growing at 3% versus the industry's 8%. The case tests framework-building, data interpretation, and brainstorming skills through progressive disclosure of exhibits showing distribution channel performance gaps, competitive benchmarking, and sales team incentive issues.

Estimated Time 36 minutes
Difficulty Hard
Source Wharton
10 / 100
PSU Bank Co. is a public sector bank and their mutual fund division has not been doing well recently. The CEO wants your support in identifying the reasons for the same and wants you to help her solve the problem. The division pools invests money of investors in a diverse set of stocks to achieve good returns.

Clarifying Information

  1. Geography - The client is a US-based bank with $70 Bn in AUM.
  2. Competition - The industry growth rate for last two years has been 8% whereas the client has been growing at 3%.
  3. Business - You can assume AUM to be similar to sales in a traditional firm. The mutual fund division gets a small fee in exchange of managing the money of volunteering investors.
  4. Objective - The AUM (assets under management) of the Mutual Fund is the total amount of investor’s money that the company manages. The AUM has not been growing fast enough as the firm has not been able to attract more investments. Objective is to find the reasons for this.
Mock Interview
Interviewer

PSU Bank Co. is a public sector bank and their mutual fund division has not been doing well recently. The CEO wants your support in identifying the reasons for the same and wants you to help her solve the problem. The division pools invests money of investors in a diverse set of stocks to achieve good returns.

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
Practicing...
Score coming soon
Practice this case with AI Mock Interview

PSU Bank’s mutual fund division underperforms competitors on AUM growth. The candidate must identify root causes by analyzing distribution channel effectiveness, product performance, competitive positioning, and sales incentives. The exhibits reveal that PSU Bank has a 25-75 channel split versus industry’s 50-50, and salesperson knowledge gaps in mutual funds.

Key Insights:

  1. Distribution channel imbalance (25-75 vs 50-50 industry split) suggests over-reliance on third-party channels rather than bank’s own channels
  2. Salesperson knowledge gaps on mutual fund products and misaligned incentives toward high-yield savings may be depressing MF sales conversion
  3. Competitive benchmarking (Exhibit B) shows PSU Bank’s fund performance is competitive, indicating problem is sales/distribution rather than product quality
  4. Interviewer-led format allows flexible exploration of hypotheses while ensuring all key questions are addressed
  5. Growth cases should probe for brainstorming ideas and measure candidate’s ability to handle additional pressure during framework explanation