Financial Services Practice Area

Overview

A new competitive landscape is emerging in financial services. Deregulation and the globalization of finance are inaugurating industry-wide consolidation as companies merge to gain economies of scale, eliminate excess capacity, and cut costs. The Indian financial services market has been one of the most dynamic over the last five years. Dramatic market share shifts, realignment of competitive landscape and emergence of specialists in distribution and advisory services have characterized this evolution.

At the same time, the industry's traditional integrated value chain is breaking apart, giving rise to a new generation of focused players that are attacking established companies at key points in the value chain. Moreover, unprecedented new developments associated with the Internet and electronic commerce are posing fundamental strategic challenges to traditional business models.

Our Practice

BCG has a strong established presence in Financial Services in India. This is the largest practice area for BCG in India. We work with 6 of the 10 largest public sector banks, the largest of the foreign banks and 2 of the top 3 private sector banks.

By focusing on underlying customer needs and the fundamental economics of the business, we help banks, insurance companies, exchanges, asset managers and other financial services companies rethink their strategic assumptions and identify winning business propositions. We also help them organize in order to exploit new opportunities and move quickly to get things done.

Industries within the practice

Our Financial Services expertise in India covers several areas including:

• Asset Management and Wealth Management
  Asset management and wealth management are relatively younger industries witnessing rapid growth. We help asset and wealth managers grasp the strategic implications of changes in the market environment and exploit them to build competitive advantage.
  
  
• Insurance
  The Insurance industry is witnessing dramatic transformation. Public sector faces typical challenges of incumbents while the new private entrants are adopting differentiated growth strategies. We understand the key drivers for value creation and create new ways to manage a insurance companies by providing them with adequate tools and processes. We also develop concepts for further growth, using a multi channel/multi access approach. We help pilot new approaches and support the change management and implementation process.
  
  
• Risk and Value management
  The Risk/Value Management segment forms a cross-sectional function. In risk management we cover the entire risk management framework as well as assess and develop processes and tools in detail. In value management we support our clients by closely linking their internal business management to the requirements of the capital market.
  
  
• Retail Banking
  The Indian market is witnessing unprecedented share shifts over the last five years. We aim to help retail banks (public sector, private sector, foreign) to think beyond the limits of their current business model. We work collaboratively with our clients to deliver insights and to identify winning strategies that help them to produce results both short and long term.
  
  
• Wholesale Banking
  We assist our clients in devising strategies to profitably serve the corporates and SMEs who are fast becoming global and are demanding world class services.

Projects’ snapshot

A snapshot of select recent projects done in this area include:

• Growth acceleration strategy and Identification of opportunities for managing the business for value for a private insurance company
  The project involved developing a growth acceleration strategy including market landscaping, customer segmentation, competition benchmarking, channel strategy, etc. We also analyzed improvement opportunities in pricing for key products, branch value contribution, banc assurance and norms for tie-up with distribution partners.
  
  
• Overall business strategy for a leading asset management company
  The focus of the project was on enabling the client to “reclaim and retain leadership” with a clear articulation of marketing and support strategy. We assisted the client in organization restructuring, HR strategy, refinement of performance management systems and provided implementation support on key initiatives.
  
  
• Strategy for business process outsourcing
  The project involved market assessment of the BPO market in the US and Europe, competitive landscape of the Indian BPO industry, internal capability analysis for the client and development of pitch books for clients, detailed financial modeling and implementation planning for setting up the business. The BPO entity is one of the top 5 BPO vendors in India today.
  
  
• International growth strategy for an online multi commodity exchange
  We assisted our client, an Indian commodities exchange, in developing an international growth strategy. The project involved identifying and prioritizing all potential initiatives for out client across a broad range of asset classes, geographies and go-to-market options. A detailed assessment of attractiveness and feasibility of these initiatives was undertaken and specific implementation plans were developed. Overall, our recommendations ultimately led to a set of discrete activities for our client. This included: (1) a set of international priorities; (2) a clear set of levers to grow domestic liquidity; and (3) a set of organizational changes that will support and drive the success of the strategic initiatives relating to international and domestic growth.
  
  
• Sales force redesign for a leading nationalized bank
  We worked with our client in designing a sales force for retail customers and provided assistance during launch planning and implementation. The programme resulted in creation of a large sales force with over 1000 personnel, over 10% new business generation through the new channel and appreciation in customer service levels that were perceptibly recognized by customers.
  
  
• Entry strategy for wealth management for a leading international bank
  The project involved market sizing, customer segmentation, product and sales model definition and implementation planning for launch of the business.
  
  
• India growth strategy for a leading international NBFC
  We assessed the landscape of the Indian financial sector, identified key growth opportunities and designed the strategy and business plan for the identified growth areas. The company is targeting 10x growth in five years.
  
  
• Organizational transformation for a large public sector bank
  The project involved reviewing and redesigning the organization structure of the client, developing a strategy for enhancing performance in key retail products and enhancement of the credit and risk management processes. The client has overtime been recognized for the strength of its balance sheet and business growth by most analysts.
  
  
• Largest Indian post merger strategy and organization integration for a leading foreign bank
  We designed the integration structure and process, facilitated the process of estimating synergies from the merger and worked closely with various task forces to plan for smooth integration and delivery of value.
  
  
• Entry strategy into financial services by a conglomerate
  We analyzed the financial services landscape and evaluated opportunities to participate in the space as an NBFC and in keeping with out client’s strengths. The client decided to enter the space with a grand ambition and robust business model.

People

Dr. Janmejaya Sinha is the leader for the Financial Services Practice Area in India.