Knowing Your Customer - The Versatility of CRM in Modern Banking : A case study of niche banks in Sweden

Sammanfattning: Niche banks emerged from deregulation of the financial market and from the increasing distrust of the established banking oligopoly in Sweden. From its establishment, niche banks narrowed their scope and targeted certain profitable segments of the banking market. The proliferation of the technological development of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) enables banks to collect information and gain more control over its customer base. To create meaningful relationships and retain customers, niche banks reaches out through the convenience of both online and offline channels to provide their products and services. With the support of two Swedish niche banks, namely Länsförsäkringar Bank and ICA Bank, the objective of this study is to understand how Swedish niche banks operate their CRM strategies and how they retain customers across channels. A mixture of deductive and inductive approaches has been used in handling our data. The empirical data collected from interviews was analysed together with secondary data to fulfil our research purpose. The result from this thesis illuminates that there are contrasting views of how CRM systems are used practically within the chosen niche banks. LF Bank’s CRM system falls back on the human factor rather than the technological advancement, while ICA Bank utilizes their CRM as a digital fundament in customer building.