The global financial services industry is set to change in the next four years with a greater focus placed on core competencies...
The shape of the global financial services industry is set to change in the next four years, with core competencies becoming more important
than scale for financial institutions.
According to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers report , 'Piercing the Jigsaw: The Future of Financial Services', there are five principal forces currently driving the financial services industry. These are demographics, the economic cycle, politics, regulation and reporting, and technology. Successful institutions of the future will understand, adapt to and exploit all these drivers of change.
As institutions seek to achieve growth and improve the customer experience while managing the challenges of costs and compliance, the shape of the industry will change. Institutions will need to be transparent in their dealings with customers, simplify their offerings and organisational structures around the activities and markets in which they excel, and exit the areas in which they do not.
Instead of seeking to dominate in every segment and territory in which they operate, many institutions will temper their ambitions, looking to expand regionally instead of globally or focusing on particular customer segments or products. Size will still be important to many institutions, not least as a means of deterring potential predators, but the emphasis will be on
simplification – whether at an organisational level or in the service offering to customers.
