The impact of COVID-19 individuals, communities, and organizations is rapidly evolving from a mild and temporary hit to the worst-case scenario, a global financial crisis. While other industries such as the Travel, Transportation, Hospitality, Insurance, Retail, and Telco are severely impacted, it is the resiliency and continuity of the financial services markets that will support Governments and businesses during and post crisis; ensuring liquidity is available. All eyes will be turned to the financial services industry to see if they can respond in a manner that reduces the global economic impact of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic could be the most serious challenge to financial institutions in nearly a century. As the economic fallout spreads, retail banks find themselves juggling some big priorities that require concrete steps to reposition now while also recalibrating for the future. They are working to keep their distribution channels open, despite social distancing advice and supervisory and compliance functions that were never designed for remote work. Theyre trying to manage revenue and customer expectations, despite near-zero interest rates and growing pressure on consumers. And, they need to keep an eye on strategy and brand issues that will define their future, as market forces and customer behaviors potentially change coming out of this crisis. COVID-19 and the Marketing Environment While definitions differ, there is consensus that the Marketing Environment is the combination of external and internal factors and forces which affect the companys ability to establish a relationship and serve its customers. The Marketing Environment includes factors that surround the business and influence its marketing operations. Kotler (2019) posits that these forces remain outside the control of the firm and can upset marketing management ability to build and maintain successful relationships with target customers. Some of these factors are controllable while some are uncontrollable and require business operations to change accordingly. Firms must be well aware of the marketing environment in which they are 3 operating to overcome the negative impacts the environmental factors are imposing on their marketing activities. Against this background, PwC (2020) conjectures that the COVID-19 pandemic could be the most serious challenge to financial institutions in nearly a century. As the economic fallout spreads, retail banks find themselves juggling some big priorities that require concrete steps to reposition now while also recalibrating for the future. It implies that agile banks will survive by taking concrete steps right now; to support the communities and customers they serve while balancing medium to long term positioning; those that do not adjust may risk not surviving at all. Ghanaian financial institutions are not insulated from this reality. REQUIRED Drawing on this background and your knowledge of Marketing of Financial Services:

A. Provide a critical analysis of FIVE (5) Macro Marketing Environmental forces affecting the financial service sector today. The macro-environment refers to all forces that are part of the larger society and affect the micro-environment. They include the demographic environment, political environment, cultural environment, natural environment, technological environment and the economic environment. The purpose of analyzing the macro marketing environment is to understand the environment better and to adapt to the social environment and change through the marketing effort of the financial institutions to achieve the goal of the financial institutions marketing

B. With a critical analysis of the micro environmental forces which are forces close to the company that affects its ability to serve its customers; all those factors that are closely associated with the operations of the business and influences its functioning including suppliers, customers, marketing intermediaries, competitors and publics; discuss the effects of COVID-19 on Five (5) micro environmental forces within the financial service sector in Ghana today.