Final Word from Tuesday, November 8, 2005
Just days after the Big Three banks reported sky-high 9M earnings and won most of the Bank of the Year awards, the SOS consumer group announced an American-style class-action lawsuit against ČSOB. It's the No. 3 retail bank and is the only one of the Big Three not run by a foreigner. ČS has Banker of the Year Jack Stack, who combines global experience with the kind of humility Czechs like, while KB has Laurent Goutard, who has put on a charm campaign in recent weeks (and announced fee cuts.) Both ČS and KB made big PR blunders in the past, but they've been quicker than ČSOB to learn from their mistakes. Being foreign doesn't make their CEOs better managers, but it gives them a sense of how far they can go. CEO Pavel Kavánek of ČSOB can fight the SOS lawsuit, and probably win, but it'll likely be cheaper and less painful in the long run for him to swallow his pride and reach an out-of-court settlement. [Czech Republic Česká spořitelna Komerční banka public relations consumer banking]