Article at a glance:

Chile's lesson in lean banking

In developed markets, banks often focus on growth and acquisitions to cut costs by getting more out of the staff, IT, and back-office functions. Their counterparts in smaller, emerging markets don't always have the same opportunities, so how can they match the gains won through scale?

The take-away

Banks in Chile—one of Latin America's least populous countries——have doggedly pursued cost efficiency by redesigning their processes, adopting new branch formats, and outsourcing much of their work. These routes to cost efficiency are by no means unique, but the Chilean banks have shown how to adapt them to specific challenges in an emerging market.