Financial services: crisis brings opportunities to grow and add value

PA’s Rollo Burgess, financial services expert, is quoted in the Financial Times Business of Consulting special report.  Rollo comments on the future of consulting in the financial services sector. Growth in the sector is being driven by industry consolidation and corporate reshaping arising from the financial crisis as well as the regulatory projects required under Basel III, Solvency II, international financial reporting standards and Europe’s Retail Distribution Review.

Rollo points out that many universal banks find themselves at a strategic crossroads. Their managers are often at full stretch dealing with a flood of regulations targeting their investment banking arms. That leaves their retail banking sides vulnerable to new entrants seizing the opportunities afforded by technological innovations such as social networking.

Rollo goes on to emphasise that it is difficult to foresee how the world of financial consulting will evolve over the next few years. Rollo predicts that in traded financial markets, banks’ managers will become increasingly able to design and implement reform. Where they need extra help with implementation, consultants will be under intense competitive pressure, particularly on price.

At the retail end, Rollo believes advisers will need to focus on innovative answers that increase revenues to bolster customer engagement.

You can read the article in full here.

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