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In recent years and especially in the wake of the worldwide economic recession banks have been subject to growing external pressures which combined to its internal constraints led to structural changes and aroused several challenges with a negative impact on their activity. To thrive in the new business environment and ensure sustainable profitability in medium and long term, these firms are focusing on the persecution of new management strategies that provide more efficient and cost effective services without jeopardizing quality from the customer perspective.

Cited as a holistic approach that aims to achieve operational excellence and create more value with fewer resources, lean management has been increasingly seen by banking services executives as a suitable solution to enhance competitive advantage and improve banking businesses performance. But in spite of its acclaimed success, especially when applied to manufacturing companies from where it stem from, the deployment of lean in a service enterprise still poses new challenges and obstacles that may even compromise its feasibility.