t a higher rate of interest than it pays. This is true on the retail side of the bank. The commercial side can get more complicated as the bank will work to structure loans and hedge products that are more sophisticated. From this standpoint, then, the "suppliers" are depositors and other financial institutions with which the bank conducts business. Power among individual depositors is low for those with average balances, but power among depositors with high balances can be stronger. Significant power can be vested in financial institutions that may have multiple transactions-as depositor and creditor, for example-that can influence a single institution such as the Bank of Queensland (Abdelhamid, 2003).
The financial services industry has barriers to entry in that new companies must meet regulatory requirements and also raise a significant amount of capital. However, the Bank of Queensland competes not only with local thrift institutions, but also wi
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