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Moving on what matters in unprecedented times

It’s time for financial institutions to challenge everything

Regulatory change, pressure on cost management and growth, and increased investment in technology and data are dominating the financial services industry. Disruption is also coming from non-traditional players and changing customer expectations.

The way forward isn’t survival; it’s rediscovering your purpose, galvanising your people, and aligning them with what’s most important. Our deep knowledge of the industry and our wide-ranging technology expertise means we can help balance the delivery of today’s challenges with your goals for tomorrow.

Transformation that tilts the field in your favour

The financial services industry has been fragmenting and de-layering for some time, as institutions and big tech companies chip away at the value chain. While this neo-normal has created some opportunities for collaboration in a post-Covid world, it has also presented financial institutions with a stark choice: commit to continuous technological innovation or risk yielding competitive advantage.

With share and revenue leaking out of the banking sector to other industries—especially to bigtech—we believe the time has come for financial institutions to challenge their long-established conventions and beliefs.

We are here to help as your strategic partner. Sharing the risks and rewards, bringing technological expertise, a global perspective and the ability to deliver. Enabling flexible architecture in the cloud, with market-leading tools and solutions. Using technology to find value in your data, in order to create amazing customer experiences. Putting our reputation on the line, right next to yours—and delivering on our promise of technology and human ingenuity.

Reimagining the role of technology to be a business and innovation partner

Financial Services technology is currently in the midst of a profound evolution, as CIOs and their teams prepare to embrace the next major phase of digital transformation. The challenge they face is significant: in a competitive environment of rising cost pressures, where rapid action and response is imperative, financial institutions must modernise their technology function to support expanded digitisation of both the front and back ends of their businesses.

Furthermore, the current COVID-19 situation is putting immense pressure on technology capabilities(e.g., remote working, new cyber-security threats) and requires CIOs to anticipate and prepare for the“next normal” (e.g. accelerated shift to digital channels).

That’s why we always look beyond the brief to develop architectures that deliver the right outcomes for the challenge at hand but that are also adaptable, to allow the solution to be evolved as the needs of the business evolve.

Our focus on planning and supporting complex transformation programmes is coupled with a focus on delivery. This means that we take a long-term view backed up by actionable roadmaps and an agile and iterative approach to deliver value early and incrementally. We ensure you can take the right steps for today and for the future.

The “big data” revolution

There’s no denying that data’s an incredibly valuable resource. But, there are some data themes that are getting overlooked in the industry due to a number of challenges.

One of the biggest ones in financial markets today is data availability. Clients often find that key data isn’t always readily available, or it’s too costly to produce in real-time. Sometimes, physical location, or hardware requirements to process data, can also make it prohibitively expensive. In some asset classes, such as OTC markets, data may be hard to obtain or licence.

We’ll put you back in control of your data and systems with more effective data platforms, enhanced data quality and automated data pipelines to maximise insight and drive better decision making for you and your business.

We also understand that when you’re consistently under the gaze of regulator scrutiny, there can be no room for error. In the complex world of financial services, we’ll ensure you’re also able to maximise the benefits of AI and machine learning while still complying with the data ethics framework and data governance and compliance standards such as GDPR.

Leading cyber security

Without a doubt, complexity and change are inherent in the world and can increase risk in all areas of a business. But if you can aggressively anticipate the next cyber incident or crisis, it need not constrict your next move. How can you preempt a threat to your organisation that may already be taking shape and is putting your business at risk? As organisations are called upon to align their priorities and work in concert to drive core business objectives and reduce risk, our cyber and strategic risk management services can help you focus on enterprise-level risks through a wider lens.

Our cyber security architects and assurance teams ensure solutions are secure by design and comply with the regulations and frameworks. Our red team provides penetration testing to support you in identifying vulnerabilities before they’re exploited. Should an incident take place our blue team will be ready to help you respond, mitigate the risk of further damage and recover your systems and data to get you back up and running

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All of this is underpinned by our dedicated Cyber Lab which undertakes leading edge cyber research to mitigate emerging threats by identifying and analysing trends and patterns in data or activity and developing new tools to protect against attacks.

Our cyber security expertise was key to us becoming the first European-based partner on the AWS Authority to Operate (ATO) programme, a network of consulting partners with deep expertise in solving security, privacy, and compliance requirements. We also work closely with the National Cyber Security Centre and are an accredited member of CREST.

We’ll give you the confidence to protect your business’ digital infrastructure against risks that are yet to surface, as well as those that are already known.

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Build, deliver and innovate for every corner of the enterprise

The role of engineering and financial consulting is growing every year. Technological progress, the rapid spread of innovative technologies in the energy sector, industry, transport and other areas creates a demand for professional services from engineering firms.

According to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the demand for financial services has been growing in recent years, including financial modelling and finding cheap sources of funds for large projects around the world. Things that seemed like science fiction a few years ago will soon bring stable returns to investors.

But today, companies need innovative technical solutions and financial tools to bring these ideas to life. Business owners are aware of how difficult it is to properly manage assets and finance projects in the face of uncertainty. Our clients need engineering and financial advice in a variety of situations.

Our rigorous approach to user-centred design, the development of future-proofed architectures and the application of agile delivery means that we can engineer, deploy and manage solutions that work for all with confidence.

Rapidly evolving regulations shift the ground beneath your feet

Our conversations with legal and compliance clients reveal that many are confronting issues in three key areas:

Increasing strategic and matter-specific demands on their departments driven by rapidly changing challenges and obligations and exacerbated by COVID-19. The resulting call to do more with the same or fewer resources highlights the need for greater focus on transformation—advanced contract lifecycle management being a prime example.

Accelerating financial crime risk and related regulatory requirements for financial services institutions and fintech organisations driven by increasingly tech-savvy bad actors, rapidly expanded technology use by authorities, shifting political landscapes, and growing adoption of new technologies and data analytics by all related parties.

More complex business and marketplace issues requiring expanded AI capabilities. Hurdles faced often include the inability of current legal and compliance infrastructures to keep pace with changes; a shortage of in-house resources to implement needed systems; and the management of high volumes of structured and unstructured data.

We have the experience and expertise to help you understand the relevant requirements, helping you to create services that always comply with regulations and compliance frameworks, including GDPR, PCI DSS, ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus.

This expertise was key to us becoming the first European-based partner on the AWS Authority to Operate (ATO) programme, a network of consulting partners with deep expertise in solving security, privacy, and compliance requirements.