Banking and the Customer: A Neo-Institutional Reconfiguration

Abstract

The article provides an alternative approach to previous dynamics of relationship amongst key actors in the banking industry. It sees the re-emergence of the global banking industry from the ruins of the last financial crisis as an opportunity for its reconfiguration. This reconfiguration was premised on a neo-institutional inquisition that finds accommodation for strategic choice, institutional theory and legitimacy; before placing these theories within the context of banking. This generated a conceptual outcome in a customer legitimacy model called legitimacy pyramid for the banking industry. This is a proposition for banking industry re-configuration to move beyond a dialogue of regulator cum banks and embrace a ‘trialogue’ that recognise the customers’ voice and accords it primacy.

Keywords: banking, financial crisis, legitimacy, bank customer, neo-institutional theory