Scorecard Best Practices

First National Bank: Banking Operations

First National Bank (FNB) established in 1838, is the oldest bank in South Africa. FNB trades as a division of FirstRand Bank Limited and provides services to individuals, commercial banking, corporate banking, and public sector banking. It is also dedicated to giving back to the community by supporting nonprofit organizations and institutions that help to empower and develop the community.

FNB Banking Operations, a division of First National Bank, employs more than 1,100 people and has annual revenues of US$30 million.

The check processing function for FNB had been partially outsourced and decentralized from the organization. In 2000, a decision was made to centralize this function, and its related back office services, into FNB Banking Operations by 2002. The challenge put forward to management and staff was to process a check at a targeted cost.

To meet this challenge, a scorecard system was introduced and used in conjunction with three other complementary initiatives:

An Activity‐Based Costing system

An emphasis on gathering, extracting and applying accurate and detailed MIS information

A productivity measurement model

Scorecard Use

A critical element for reaching the processing target cost was the ability to share measurements and objectives in a simple, yet detailed manner to all staff. This was the role of the scorecard.

FNB Banking Operations’ top management provided the impetus to implement a scorecard system to help manage and communicate ...