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Aug 15, 2022, by Andy Efstathiou
ESG is a hot, but poorly defined, topic. Many firms and investors have started ESG programs, but recent allegations of “greenwashing” and ineffectiveness have undermined confidence in them. So, what are the components of an effective ESG program? ESG is a wide set of dissimilar goals (e.g., carbon emissions reduction is very different than social inclusion). By focusing deeply[...]
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Jun 27, 2022, by Andy Efstathiou
I recently attended the EY Managed Services Analyst Summit. EY’s managed services business just finished a gangbuster year, growing 30% over the prior year, with some sub-segments growing at rates up to 150% y/y. Managed services is EY’s fastest growing line of business, justifying EY’s 12-year-long commitment to this business. Here I look at EY’s managed serv[...]
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Mar 25, 2022, by Andy Efstathiou
Industry background
Financial services are very centralized, with exchanges, central banks, and custodians delivering platform-based services to any user who wants to make a financial transaction or own a financial asset/liability. Decentralized finance, DeFi, is a financial system built on distributed ledger technology (DLT or blockchain) that allows a user to transact and own w[...]
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Feb 23, 2022, by Andy Efstathiou
In NelsonHall’s newly published market assessment, Digital Banking Services: Transforming the Financial Services Industry, we found that financial institutions are changing their approach to digital services: from a focus on digital channels and CX to a focus on rapid solution development, cloud migration, data management, and STP.
The goal for financial institutions today i[...]
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Jan 13, 2022, by Andy Efstathiou
Digital transformation has accelerated in the banking industry since the start of the pandemic. This blog describes some recent digitalization activities a bank undertook with Xebia to improve its customer contact processes and provide differentiated service with increased efficiency.
The challenge
A U.S.-based neo bank began experiencing ongoing high call volumes in its call [...]
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Jan 11, 2022, by Andy Efstathiou
In 2022, the financial industry will continue to focus on building out its cloud and digital services infrastructure. This will be a deepening of capabilities for banks that have started their transformation, and the start of the journey for institutions that have not yet initiated their transformation. The growth rate of digital transformation is very high at ~20%.
Since most tec[...]
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Dec 20, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
On December 15, 2021, Kyndryl and Viewpointe announced a cloud migration, modernization and management contract. The engagement provides insight for BFS executives into how banking services operations vendors are moving to the cloud to simplify operational delivery and enable business model change to expand and improve their business.
Current state
Viewpointe provides conte[...]
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Nov 25, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
Wipro acquired Capco six months ago, and is Wipro’s largest ever acquisition which, if successful, should enable it to compete with tier-one technology and management consulting firms in large-scale, domain critical, transformation projects with financial institutions.
However, successful unions are not created at the strategic level, but with disciplined execution that driv[...]
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Oct 27, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
The payments industry has been transforming away from physical payments and electronic closed networks into an open network, all-digital payment ecosystem, and the pandemic has accelerated this shift. From the consumer’s perspective, this has been characterized by:
A move to e-commerce and m-commerce, away from brick-and-mortar commerce
Aggressively reduced use of tradi[...]
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Sep 27, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) is a popular topic of conversation and one that most corporations claim to be actively pursuing. The financial industry is particularly active in ESG, and here I look briefly at what is being done to support ESG initiatives by IT services and BPS vendors who support financial institutions’ operations.
How vendors he[...]
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Aug 16, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
Digital startup banks are built on FinTech functionality to deliver financial services in an omnichannel environment. There are two types of FinTechs: B2B businesses that have a proprietary platform to deliver service to clients, and B2C businesses that provide clients with an all-digital banking experience.
WNS: expanded focus on B2C FinTechs
While WNS supports B2B and B2C, it[...]
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Jun 22, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
Banks are accelerating their move to the cloud to respond to the pandemic, enable greater operational agility to reduce time to market, and develop open banking capabilities. At the same time, performance dispersion (the operational variance across institutions within the industry) has increased significantly.
Cloud delivery can change operational performance and hyperscale busine[...]
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May 18, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital transformation across all industries, and in the financial sector, operational transformation has grabbed the top spot in the priority list for investment and spending. At the same time, performance dispersion (the variance across institutions within the industry) has significantly increased.
So, how can banks make their transfo[...]
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Apr 08, 2021, by Andy Efstathiou
NelsonHall recently published a market assessment and forecast report on Intelligent Automation in Banking: Transforming Operations. We found that financial institutions must automate their operations if they are to compete successfully in a rapidly evolving marketplace. Currently, they operate with manual processes using a heterogeneous set of platforms, acquired over many years of [...]
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Dec 18, 2020, by Andy Efstathiou
Banks will spend 2021 pursuing different aspects of three key initiatives that have become more important since the advent of COVID-19. The first is process automation, which has become more important but needs to increase its delivery effectiveness. The second, work-from-home (WFH) has also accelerated under COVID-19 but will need to change in 2021 to continue to be effective.[...]
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Nov 03, 2020, by Andy Efstathiou
It has been extensively reported that industries requiring in-person interaction, such as travel and entertainment, have been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Less obvious has been the impact on industries that are often typified by remote delivery. For example, the wealth and asset management industry is primarily driven by the long-term buildup of wealth and involves in[...]
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Oct 14, 2020, by Andy Efstathiou
I recently participated in a webinar panel during the Consumer Banking Association conference with Genpact and TD Bank. The panel topic was Genpact: Turning Crisis into Opportunity for Consumer Banking, and it addressed three core topics:
The global health and economic crises have reshaped consumer banking
Banks are adjusting to serve customers digitally while trying to maint[...]
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Jul 28, 2020, by Andy Efstathiou
NelsonHall recently completed a market assessment and forecast report on Transforming Mortgage and Loan Services. We found that the lending industry is undergoing profound operational change as it adapts to slowing loan growth and emerging customer populations that are younger and more technology savvy. For the past two years, lenders have been:
Variablizing and reducing the co[...]
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Jun 12, 2020, by Andy Efstathiou
The past decade since the global financial crisis (GFC) has been good for the lending industry. Loan delinquencies in the U.S. reached their highest level after the GFC in the first quarter of 2010 at 7.4% of commercial bank loan portfolios. Since then, loan delinquencies have fallen to 1.44% of loan portfolios as of the fourth quarter of 2019. At the same time, loan portfolios[...]
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Apr 21, 2020, by Andy Efstathiou
This is an update on my last blog on the impact of COVID-19 on the financial services industry. Since then, I have interviewed many more industry executives both at banks and at operations services vendors. Industry responses are still muted, but clear signs are emerging that banks will be focused on prioritizing those activities which maintain continuity and support adaptation [...]