With the new year upon us, we see 2016 as another challenging period for the global financial services industry. Falling commodity prices, continued volatility in China’s economy, and global regulatory uncertainty are making an investment bank CEO’s job of navigating these choppy waters a dizzying prospect at best.
Global regulatory reform stemming from the 2008 Financial Crisis has placed tremendous pressure on margins at all the global investment banks and has increased costs significantly at most other financial firms, such as hedge funds and large insurance companies. It has been over five years since the Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law, and, in that time, the fintech revolution has accelerated the disruption of age-old business models in the areas of lending and payments and has challenged our clients to implement complex change initiatives in order to remain relevant in the financial marketplace. In this period, our consultants have not just been strategic advisers—guiding our clients through the turbulent waters of regulatory reform—but also implementers of some of the most complex and technologically challenging initiatives facing bank and non-bank companies in a generation.
Our advice to leaders in the financial services industry is to put first things first when prioritizing investments in their people, processes, and systems. It is also vital to surround oneself with professionals who have a keen appreciation for the new technologies that will underpin the future of this industry. From my desk, I view regulatory reform as being in the ‘7th inning stretch,’ and once the implementation of the major—and costly—reform measures are in the rearview mirror, the global banks that never lost sight of making the right investments will be the clear winners as the industry drives towards 2020 and beyond.
In this quarter’s newsletter, we cover regulatory topics such as the Volcker Rule and we revisit recent engagements where our consultants have built tactical tools, including software being used to measure and improve the data quality of one global bank’s regulatory transaction reporting.
To see how Monticello Consulting can help you with your most complex regulatory and technology programs, reach out to us today at info@monticellocg.com.