Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

In the past, litigation was viewed as the preferred means to resolve most banking disputes-for a variety of reasons. A lawsuit, however, is often a fruit tree planted in the lawyers' garden. Thus, the time has come to suggest that banking institutions look to alternatives to litigation as they enter new areas of business previously dominated almost exclusively by other financial institutions.

Why is this the case? Simply because many of the controversies arising in these new business areas might better be resolved by such alternatives to litigation as arbitration, where skilled and experienced individuals familiar with the banking industry and its new areas of interest are available to serve as arbitrators under streamlined, simple, less expensive, and less divisive procedures.