LBS scholarship applications

I am writing this one week later than announced since I worked a lot this week, even more than the day I complained about another 17 hours day. I worked till 3 am Wednesday and Thursday and got up at 6:30 the next morning. At least I got to take the flight back home at lunchtime on Friday already so the weekend has been relaxing.

The first thing I want to do is to welcome my future class mate Ellen Ke to the ever growing group of the LBS2008 bloggers! We have been e-mailing each other for a few weeks now and it's nice to keep updated through blogs.

My main task this weekend will be to finish my scholarship application for the Deutsche Bank Women Scholarship and I hope some of my readers with experience in the financial services industry can give me some advice! The list of scholarships offered for LBS students this year is incredibly long. Basically, there are two types of scholarships, the London Business School Annual Fund Scholarships and the Class and Company Scholarships. Annual Fund Scholarships are awarded at the same time you receive your admissions decisions and one doesn't need to apply for those. The Class and Company scholarships in turn require a couple of additional essays that need to be submitted by May 26th. As far as I know, only admits from Rounds 1, 2 and 3 are eligible for these scholarships.

The most attractive scholarships are those covering roughly 50% of fees. Assuming you haven't received a school scholarship, the most generous company scholarships are those offered by Vodafone (eligible to all "who would otherwise not be able to do so" - probably not directed at German management consultants!) and Deutsche Bank (women only). I need to hand in the following two essays:

1. What are current/likely key developments in the global financial services industry and how do you think these will affect Deutsche Bank?

2. How do you see yourself being an ambassador for Deutsche Bank if you were to be awarded a Deutsche Bank Women's Scholarship?

I'm not so worried about the second question, I assume there are ample ways of representing your donor on campus through clubs, societies, speaker events, summer internships and so on. But I'm a bit worried about the first one. I have brainstormed some ideas but I'm afraid to miss some important trend! Also, "the global financial services industry" is a VERY ample industry, including insurance companies, tax advisory firms and so on.

So here's my brainstormed list of bullet points about current/likely key developments, and if anyone out there has come across such questions in interviews, articles or anything like that please share you thoughts. So, what's happening in the "global financial services industry"on a "bullet point level"? The format of the list will be "trend-recommendation for DB":

• Consolidation within markets - eat or be eaten
  
• Cross border mergers - eat or be eaten
  
• New/emerging markets (esp. China/India) - don't miss the opportunity (every Western bank seems to be moving to Asia now, but when are Asian banks going to come to the West to compete? Will they ever?)
  
• Increasing complexity of markets/products - risk management
  
• Increasing regulatory pressures - corporate governance
  

If some of you are very worried about my chances now I understand ;-), but obviously I will elaborate a little bit more in the actual application. I'm just wondering if there are any important developments I am missing? Please feel free to comment.