Agility

18) Similarly, after a short-term hit to sales, banks making bolder staff reductions (30 percent since 2015) were better positioned for future success. They retained a leaner, more productive workforce and achieved 2 percent sales growth in 2019, compared with flat sales for their more cautious counterparts (Exhibit 4), driven in part by higher and accelerating digital sales.
19) Simply closing branches and reducing staff are insufficient. Leaders transformed, not merely

17) A common concern is that rapid reduction in branch footprint fuels customer attrition and hurts sales. In fact, our data indicate that thoughtful branch reductions did not disengage customers. Banks that persevered with significant branch closures (reducing footprint by 39 percent in five years) experienced 22 percent lower customer attrition than more cautious actors.