Citizens Bank is an established bank in the nation of Albion. With a total of 125 branches across Albion, the bank is increasing its digital presence by offering a wide range of mobile banking services. The banks' clientele consists of retail and business customers. Among the services provided are for savings accounts, current accounts, business and personal loans, mortgages and credit cards. Citizens Bank's corporate vision is to be 'the bank of the people' and a mission to 'serve all the banking needs of the citizens of Albion'. To achieve this, the bank has the following values: 1. Placing customers' needs at the forefront. This involves understanding and anticipating customers' needs and making banking products and services available to the widest number of customers possible. Citizens Bank recently made a large investment in IT security to prevent fraud and also invested in technology to make services accessible to the visually impaired and other special needs customers. 2. Simplifying the business. This entails identifying opportunities to simplify activities and facilitate open and clear communications. 3. Making a positive impact on communities served. This involves serving the bottom 40% segment of society, new homeowners, and small and medium enterprises (SMES) as well as being fair and responsible all the time. Extracts from Citizens Banks' balanced scorecard are shown as follows: Performance Measures 20x0 20x0 Actual Target Financial Perspective Return on capital employed (ROCE) Interest income 13% 14% Net interest margin (margin achieved on interest income) Amount of new lending to SMES $8.5m 2.6% $160 $8m 2.7% $180 Customer Perspective Number of first-time homebuyers given a mortgage by Citizens Bank Number of complaints (per 1,000 customers) Number of talking cashpoints installed for the visually impaired Number of wheelchair ramps installed in branches 90,000 1.2 88.000 1.6 140 130 70 60 Internal Processes Number of processes in Citizens Bank simplified and reengineered Number of new services made through mobile banking Incidences of fraud on customers' accounts or credit cards (per 1,000 customer) 4 140 120 3 6. Incidences of fraud on customers' accounts or credit cards (per 1,000 customer) 4 Total carbon dioxide emissions (tonnes) 560,000 500,000 Number of employees trained to provide advice to SMES Number of hours (paid by Citizens Bank) to support community projects Number of trainee positions taken up by candidates from Albion's most disadvantaged areas Number of community organizations supported (either through funding or by volunteers from Citizens Bank) 1,200 1,400 500,000 450,000 2,690 2,500 8,500 8,000 Required: (a) Why is the bal anced scorecard a more appropriate approach to measure the performance at Citizens Bank compared to a traditional approach reliant entirely on financial measures? Explain. (b) Based on all the information provided, including Citizens Bank's vision, mission and values, discuss the performance of Citizens Bank in 20x0. (c) Discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of using a balanced scorecard to measure Citizens Bank's performance.