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The article presents a case study of corporate reorganization at the Mexican bank Grupo Financiero Inverlat (Inverlat) following investment by the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) in October, 1996. A history of the bank and Mexican banking policy is presented. The impact of the reorganization on corporate culture at Inverlat is discussed. Objectives of BNS in the reorganization of Inverlat included improving profits, information resources management and customer service. Communication style and language barriers between BNS and Inverlat employees are identified as key challenges in the reorganization.

Introduction The Second World War led to a complete reversal in the perception of the role of the state in the national economy of The Netherlands. The passive role of laissez-faire which it had adopted in the 1930s had been markedly unsuccessful. After the war, therefore, an active policy was implemented which led to the creation of a welfare state. Before we examine the social and economic policies that resulted in the welfare state, we will look closely at the 1940s, where the story is one of war and reconstruction. Special attention must be paid to the financial consequences of the German occupation, notably to the ballooning public debt and money supply, as well as to the ways in which these major financial problems were handled after liberation. In the financial sector, the post-war period began with the demarcation lines between the different financial institutions still pretty well intact: the various kinds of financial institutions all had their market segments well defined. The late 1950s saw the beginning of a process of diversification and expansion. We will describe this process, sketch the development of the payments system and end by describing how the Nederlandsche Bank reacted to the changing environment. War and peace The German occupation The pressure on the Dutch economy mounted throughout the war years. As in other countries, one of the conditions imposed as part of the surrender to Nazi Germany was the recognition of German occupation currency, the so called Reichskreditkassenscheine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction In the course of the seventeenth century, Dutch finance became intricately connected to the world economic system. Its development was bolstered by favourable developments in international trade, which allowed the Dutch to exploit their geographic position and their harbours to the full, and by an economic boom which lasted long enough for considerable capital accumulation. The political and social structures were well suited to the preservation of wealth and allowed for high propensities to save. The accumulated funds in The Netherlands are estimated to have grown enormously since approximately 1500, even during the less favourable eighteenth century. Van Zanden calculated for Holland alone a rise in capital wealth from ten to twelve million guilders around 1500 to approximately 1,750 million guilders around 1790 (Van Zanden 1993, p. 23). In the beginning, the swell of capital was mainly diverted to domestic investments and trade. Increasingly, the Dutch funds came to be invested in public loans and foreign assets. The demand by public authorities, in particular for government loans, had increased considerably (cf. previous chapter). But during the eighteenth century, foreign governments came to attract Dutch capital too, specifically for the underwriting of warfare loans. As such, the Amsterdam capital market served to link varied networks of funds and fortunes, both of domestic and of foreign origin. The development was the more remarkable as the Dutch financial institutions did not excel in innovation. On the contrary, the establishment remained basically oriented towards the past. Several Italian cities and also the English state, in the meantime, moved ahead of the Dutch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the banking system: from ‘revolution’ to stagnation As a result of the relatively slow development of the banking system in the nineteenth century, its size and structure in 1913 differed from that of banking systems in other industrialised countries. The data presented in table 6.1 illustrate these differences clearly. The system of monetary transfer was much less developed in The Netherlands than in neighbouring countries; the proportion of total money supply (Ml) accounted for by notes and coins in circulation was 64 per cent, about twice the corresponding figure for Belgium and Germany. The importance of the composition of the money supply was reflected in the structure of commercial banks' liabilities: in The Netherlands the relationship between equity and deposits was much more favourable than in other countries. The background to this situation, a situation Johan de Vries has labelled archaic (Joh. de Vries 1989, p. 44) is discussed in chapter 5. The foremost factor behind this delayed development of commercial banking in The Netherlands was the large and very efficient prolongatie system, which brought together the supply of and the demand for short-term credit. As a result, banks played a relatively modest role in the money market and, because of the small or absent differences between short-term and long-term interest rates, had difficulties in attracting deposits to enlarge their activities. Only after about 1906 did the large commercial banks, which had hitherto almost exclusively provided short-term credit to commerce, begin to expand rapidly (figure 6.1 and table 6.2). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction From about 1780, The Netherlands dropped back from a leading position in trade and banking to a rank more befitting its size, content to follow international developments rather than steering them. For long, this downgrading was hidden and softened by the riches accumulated during the Golden Age, which ensured Amsterdam a continuing position in international finance. The character and importance of that position changed irrevocably as well, however. In 1834 the government of the United States moved their European account from W. & J. Willink of Amsterdam to Rothschild in London (Chapman 1984, p. 21). From the end of the 1840s Hope & Co.'s unique hold over Russian government issues slipped (Platt 1984, pp. 70–2). Around 1850 several big German–Jewish bankers shut their Amsterdam branches, sealing the city's slide to second rank. The adaptation to changed economic circumstances proved long and painful. Industrialisation and corporate joint-stock banking both came late in the nineteenth century, inspiring many observers to suggest a negative link between the two, blaming conservative bankers and wary investors for the prolonged economic decline. If that suggestion fails to stand up to scrutiny, it still leaves to be explained what actually happened in Dutch banking during the nineteenth century. The themes dominating this period may be summed up as the evolution towards a national economy in tandem with a financial system centred on Amsterdam, and the slow emancipation of banking from trade and other activities. Only the convergence of these developments in the decade after 1860 created the opportunities for the first joint-stock banks. As an important proxy to the first two factors the currency vicissitudes will be treated first. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]