Retail & Small Business Banking

Rethinking banking. Reshaping banks.

Digital has changed banking forever. While people still need financial services, many no longer need a traditional “bank.” They need the right services at the right moments in the right ways.

We work hand-in-hand with financial institutions—pre-IPO fintechs, midcap banks, and the largest enterprises—to redefine how they create value for customers. Together, we’re putting people and technology at the heart of everything. We’re integrating channels, creating new products and experiences, and building our clients’ capabilities to win the race for the customer.

What we do

Retail & Small Business Banks

We help banks rethink their businesses and value proposition to win in the digital arena, assisting with everything from reinventing the strategic vision and overhauling tech infrastructure to full-scale transformations and employee reskilling.

Fintechs

We collaborate with fintechs to help scale their business and supplement their teams. As a dedicated impact partner, we help organizations with accelerating sales and building alliance ecosystems, as well as hyper-scaling operating models and creating comprehensive M&A strategies.

Examples of our work

Large-scale digital transformation for a US consumer bank

A major US regional bank wanted to remain competitive in a market experiencing compressed revenues and margins from low interest rates and a step change in digital behavior during COVID-19. We helped the bank define three key initiatives—leveraging marketing and personalization to drive digital sales and digital adoption, digitizing front-to-back customer journeys, and reimagining the bank’s physical distribution. To do this quickly and at scale, the bank invested in next-gen technology, data and analytics, digital talent, and enterprise-level agile delivery. The multiyear transformation yielded more than $400 million in net income, with about 75 percent coming from digital sales and the rest from lowering costs.

Holistic transformation for a Latin American bank

A leading regional bank was facing numerous top-line pressures, including falling interest rates, regulatory pressures, new expectations from customers and employees, and increased competition from new and traditional challengers. Our collaboration included reviewing the bank’s retail and small and medium-size enterprise (SME) business to ensure it was providing the right customized products and services and capturing market share, implementing an in-depth efficiency program to optimize the bank’s cost basis, and a full tech transformation to modernize all platforms and ways of working. The initiatives resulted in a $400 million increase in EBITDA over the retail business’s baseline (200 percent above plan) in the first year and a $1.1 billion increase in the following year.

Building a digital bank while increasing community engagement

A leading regional commercial bank in Asia wanted to build a digital bank with comprehensive services. We helped design and implement a five-year strategy, starting with ten “quick win” revenue growth levers, including an improved segmentation approach for customer acquisition, wealth management product optimization, and enhanced transaction banking capabilities. We also assisted with launching a big data sales management platform, and helped the bank improve its ecosystem by upgrading the non-financial service platform, creating a new e-payment and lending product, and establishing an operating model to convert platform users to bank customers. Through these initiatives, the bank increased its net profit by 36 percent and return on assets by 12 percent over the previous year.

Transforming a European bank’s customer service model

A major European bank with a strong physical presence experienced a dramatic customer shift to digital channels at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked with the bank to redesign its service model with a focus on scaling remote channels, generating sales of complex products, and migrating transactions and support to digital. As a result of these efforts, the bank reduced its branch network by 30 percent and increased the number of remote advisors fourfold.

Featured capabilities

Finalta

Improves a bank's operational performance and financial metrics by benchmarking process efficiency, sales performance, and high-level strategy

FinLab

Combining deep industry expertise, quantitative analytics, and research, to help build capabilities.

Global Banking Pools

Detailed sizing and forecasts of banking markets by region and product.

Panorama FinTech

Comprehensive database of global financial technology innovations.

Featured Insights

Report

Reshaping retail banks: Enhancing banking for the next digital age

– The current model of universal retail banking is unsustainable over the long term. To thrive, banks need to reinvent themselves,... focusing on businesses where they can achieve and extend market leadership in the new digital world.
Article

A digital approach to SME banking

– Small and medium-size enterprises are a clear growth opportunity for banks in a difficult environment. A digital-first approach... with a personal touch can help banks crack the code of this historically overlooked segment.
Report

Europe’s fintech opportunity

– Fintech has moved from the fringes of European finance to its core, but performance varies widely. If all countries could match... the best in region, the economic benefits would be considerable.
Report

Fintech in Africa: The end of the beginning

– Africa’s fintech industry is coming of age. In the face of political and economic challenges and a global pandemic, fintech on... the continent is booming. Here’s what comes next.
Article

Best of both worlds: Balancing digital and physical channels in retail banking

– Banking distribution needs to account for the evolving interdependencies between channels. Accelerating digital and upgrading... the physical experience to “phygital” offers a viable solution.

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