Analysis of Merrill Lynch Bank's Business Environment Factors

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business environment surrounding Merrill Lynch Bank. It begins with an introduction defining the business environment and its impact, followed by an examination of the macro-environmental factors, including political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental aspects, which influence the bank's operations. The report then delves into the internal strengths and weaknesses of Merrill Lynch Bank through a detailed SWOT analysis, identifying opportunities and threats. The interrelationships between the macro environment and the bank's competitive position are also explored, particularly in the context of technological advancements and government interventions. The analysis highlights how these factors affect the bank's ability to expand its business and maintain a strong market presence. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of understanding the business environment for sustained success. The report references various sources to support its analysis.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO3..................................................................................................................................................3
LO4..................................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The perspective of business environment reflect the changes in business condition which
can be internally and externally. Thus, various factors are covered under business environment
such as innovation in technology, government norms, changes in social trends and the strategies
of competitors to enter into the market (Business Environment, 2019). Present report is based on
Merrill Lynch Bank which is founded on 6th January 1914 by Charles E. Merrill. They mainly
provides services in respective of investment management which provides benefits to investors.
This report will includes the positive and negative impact of macro environment which
influences the business operation in wider ways. It also includes the internal strength and
weakness of the Merrill Lynch Bank along with their interrelationship with the macro factors.
LO3
The macro factors which influences the Merrill Lynch Bank externally are in respective
of entering into different countries are in respective of:
 Political factors: The political factors which are affecting the Merrill Lynch Bank are in
respective of the decision made by government in operating their business into different
countries. As Merrill Lynch Bank deals in investment and also provides services to
different countries and provides security and benefits to the investors (González Ortega
and et.al., 2019). The political factors which can impose restriction to Merrill Lynch
Bank is in respective of trade restrictions and also various norms regarding political
interferences in dealing in any countries.
 Economic Factors: Merrill Lynch Banks is an American bank and had fixed rate of
interest. Thus, the economic factors which causes impact to Merrill Lynch Bank
externally are in respect of inflation in exchange rates. As inflation affects the currency of
the country and also if the bank deal in any other country it reflect the working position
(Bank of America SWOT & PESTLE Analysis, 2019). The clients are also different and
the capability to invests in business also affects due to changes in interests rates. In such
perspective the rate of GDP is also fluctuated if there is growth in Merrill Lynch Bank
regarding their investment policy. The positive impact of preferring the economic factors
is that they can raise the capital in market by undertaking the supply and demand of such
services in market (Kara, 2018). The negative impact reflect through continuous

fluctuation in currency rates which distracts the interest of investors in Merrill Lynch
Bank.
 Social factors: The factors which influences Merrill Lynch Bank are in respective of
values, cultures and attitudes which they behave with the society. The major influences
are in respective of the class of populations in different country which had capability to
invest in the banks. It also resultant to the educational background of the public which
understands their project bring by Merrill Lynch Bank (Nurmi and Niemelä, 2018). The
positive impact of social factors for Merrill Lynch Bank is that they can easily approach
to different country and prepare the polices as per the customer demand, so that it can be
easily affordable by any person. The negative aspects is that bank make polices according
to the class of the people thus, there is discrimination of person according to their
stability in country.
 Technological factors: This factors is mainly needed in context of examining the actual
population in which the bank is planning to expand their business. The positive aspect of
preferring this factors is that there is cyber security of the data if the public is dealing
through online. For the Merrill Lynch Bank, they interact with customer through online
services and also various queries are to be solved online (Espinoza and et.al., 2019). The
negative aspects of this macro factors is that there are more chances of infringement of
data and security. Also due to bring innovation in technology, it results in slower down
the servers which affects customers interests in dealing through online.
 Legal factors: The factors which are resulting through legal forms are in respective of
laws which is imposed by government in respective of Data protection and also various
laws are placed which protect the rights of persons. The positive aspect of preferring this
external factors is that the data which is inserted under Merrill Lynch Bank are secured
and customer can invest their money without any occurrence of infringement (Mkude and
Wimmer, 2015). By this factor all the employees and customers behave ethically. The
negative aspects are in relation to the laws which the customers and employees are bound
to follow and also they will be penalised in case of any threats occurred.
 Environmental factors: The factors which causes impact upon the Merrill Lynch Bank
is related to changes in climatic conditions. As most of the activities are linked with
digital platform thus, changes in weather condition reflecting the connection power of the

bank (Rastogi and Trivedi, 2016). Though this process, it causes impact to reach to large
number of customer and resolve their issues. Thus changes in weather reflect the
company position in market and also their tendency to expand their business into
different countries.
LO4
SWOT analysis of Merrill Lynch Bank
Strength
 The strong brand image and name help
the Merrill Lynch bank to attract more
and more customer to invest in bank
services and deposit their savings.
 It is a leading bank in global wealth
management and helps to provide
different investment option to the
customer to improve their wealth.
 Merrill Lynch is the world largest
brokerage bank which deals with more
than 15000 advisors to communicate
with investor regarding the investment
options.
 It builds strong distribution network
with the global market to provide their
services across the nation.
 The training and development program
helps to enhance the skills and
knowledge of the employee’s for
providing better services to the
customer.
Weaknesses
 The investment in research and
development department is quite below
in compare to the competitors and
change in global market. It influences
their performance in global market.
 Merrill Lynch bank has to face different
challenges while moving towards the
different segments or services due to
the present culture.
 The attrition rate of employees in
higher in Merrill Lynch bank in
compare to the other bank. It creates
negative image in the mind of customer
and investor.
 The advancement of technology
requires paying more attention towards
the operations of bank. Less attention
toward the changing technology
increases the chance of failure in the
global market.
Opportunities
 As slow growth rate and recession was
Threat
 There is no regular supply of

seen over the years, Bank is having
opportunity to capture its new
customers that further helps in
capturing huge market share.
 Over the years company have invested
a huge amount in building its online
platform. So new sales channels have
been opened and bringing opportunity
for the bank to know their customers in
better way.
 New trends in behaviour of the
customers can open new market
opportunity for the banks and they can
also diversify into new product
categories(Espinoza and et.al., 2019).
 Decreasing cost of transportation due to
low shipping prices can lower down the
cost of products and can boost up the
profitability of the bank.
 Stable free cash flow brings
opportunities for the bank in order to
invest in different product segments.
Company will have opportunity to
invest in new technologies as well as in
new products segments. This should
open a window of opportunity for Bank
of America Merrill Lynch in other
product categories
innovative products that leads to high
and slow swing in sales number over
the period of time.
 Rising raw materials can become treat
to the profitability of the business.
 Company can also face lawsuits in
different market due to different laws
and fluctuation in standard of the
product(Kara, 2018).
 Local distributors strength is increasing
that can become threat in different
markets.
 Changing in consumers buying
behaviour from ion line channel can be
threat to physical infrastructure.
 Currency fluctuation can be seen as its
is operating in numerous countries all
over the world.
 Increasing in pricing level in china may
lead to serious pressures on business
profitability of Merrill Lynch bank
The major interrelation which is found in found in respective of macro environment are
related to competitive environment which is related to technology advancement. As due to

innovation in technology they cannot linked with large number of customers instead of having
the most developing bank situated in America (Song, Sun and Jin, 2017). Thus, Merrill Lynch
Bank carry the strong brand name thus, lot of competitors are raised to beat their policy
regarding investment. The another interrelation is to be done on the bases of government
intervention as due to having strict rules and polices. They are facing issue in respect of
expanding their business into different countries.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that Business environment reflect the strategies
working of the company and also various aspect through which they can sustain their business
activity to retain for longer time period. In case of Merrill Lynch Bank, the external business
environment reflect the working of banks in various aspects through which it restricts the bank to
promote their business into different countries. In this report it also identifies the Merrill Lynch
Bank techniques in respective of their internal working through analysing the SWOT methods.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Espinoza, J. A. and et.al., 2019. Extending PESTEL technique to neutrosophic environment for
decisions making in business management. Neutrosophic Sets & Systems. 27.
González Ortega, R. and et.al. , 2019. Pestel analysis based on neutrosophic cognitive maps and
neutrosophic numbers for the sinos river basin management. Neutrosophic Sets & Systems.
26.
Kara, E., 2018. A Contemporary Approach For Strategic Management in Tourism Sector:
PESTEL Analysis on The City Muğla, Turkey. İşletme Araştırmaları Dergisi. 10(2).
pp.598-608.
Mkude, C. G. and Wimmer, M. A., 2015. Studying interdependencies of e-government
challenges in Tanzania along a PESTEL analysis.
Nurmi, J. and Niemelä, M. S., 2018, November. PESTEL Analysis of Hacktivism Campaign
Motivations. In Nordic Conference on Secure IT Systems (pp. 323-335). Springer, Cham.
Rastogi, N.I.T.A.N.K. and Trivedi, M.K., 2016. PESTLE technique–a tool to identify external
risks in construction projects. International Research Journal of Engineering and
Technology (IRJET). 3(1). pp.384-388.
Song, J., Sun, Y. and Jin, L., 2017. PESTEL analysis of the development of the waste-to-energy
incineration industry in China. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 80. pp.276-
289.
Online
Bank of America SWOT & PESTLE Analysis. 2019 .Online. Available Through:
<https://www.swotandpestle.com/bank-america/>.
Business Environment. 2019 .Online. Available Through: <
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/business-environment.html>.