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This investigation develops an analytic hierarchy framework to help banks choose development strategies according to six main criteria comprising 41 attributes, namely management performance, staff rights and interests, customer orientation, financial analysis, government policy and risk management. Questionnaires are administered to compare the priorities of different criteria and the ratings of feasible developmental strategies amongst decision makers and respondents including bank superintendents (Department of Finance), economists, shareholders, customers, executives and staff of the Bank of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Additionally, the analytic hierarchy process and consistent fuzzy preference relation are used to improve consistency and effectiveness in decision making. The analytical results reveal that risk management and customer orientation are the most important considerations for the Bank of Kaohsiung in the development of a strategy selection. Furthermore, the staff select the best futuristic policy on "focusing on core business competitiveness to become a specialized and stable bank," whereas the other five groups choose the strategy of "merging with other finance organizations to become an existing bank."

Because of decision makers having limited attention spans and information processing capabilities, as well as some decision alternatives being incomparable, decision makers may develop incomplete preference relations in which some elements cannot be provided. The method proposed by Herrera et al. devises a consistent preference relation that isrestricted by the set of 1 − n values } ,..., , { 1 23 12 n n p p p − .Therefore, for convenience and flexibility, the following uses the incomplete fuzzy preference relation with the least judgments (that is, 1 − n judgments) to develop a simple and practical method for constructing a consistent complete fuzzy preference relation in which experts can compare any row, column or diagonal. The proposed method is more convenient and flexible than that of Herrera et al.

This investigation establishes an analytical hierarchy framework to help banks choose merger strategies based on six main criteria. The consistent fuzzy preference relation is used to improve decision making consistency and effectiveness. The analytical results demonstrate that risk management and financial composition of banks are the major considerations for banks in strategy selection. Furthermore, analytical results demonstrate the best futuristic policy is "merging with other financial organizations to become part of an existing bank."