Service companies rarely treat IP as seriously as their counterparts in the luxury goods, automotive and fast-moving consumer goods sectors who produce tangible goods that can be invented, designed, branded and trade marked. But in an era of globalization that is characterized by cross-border mergers, the growth of online banking and trading, and footloose customers who no longer have a bank for life or know their local branch manager by name, banks can no longer downgrade the importance of IP.