Project Experience

Financial services…Paradigm shifts have dramatically increased buyer power.

Client Situation
The notion of an "open finance" environment has dramatically increased the power and mobility of banking customers. In the old days, customers would often stop by their local bank branch to ask their loan officer for advice on any personal finance need. Today, customers are more likely to enter a financial services portal to shop for the best rates. No longer the initial point of contact for customers' personal finance needs, banks are instead competing against a long list of potential providers. One of the world's leading banks came to us out of concern that it was not well-positioned to compete in an open finance environment.

Fuld Approach
If consumers could enter a financial services portal and obtain services from any provider, how could our client guard its customer loyalty or preserve its brand? To answer this question, we interviewed numerous business leaders facing these same issues in their own companies. Rather than limiting the research to traditional banking competitors, we considered the intentions of other types of financial services firms as well as several "dot.com" technology-based firms that had successfully built market share in an open pricing environment.

Benefits and Implications
Our client came away with a realistic view of what it could and could not feasibly do, as well as a clear understanding of what it had to do to remain at the top of its business. For more information on addressing a paradigm shift in financial services, contactlscanlon@fuld.com.