2024 financial services industry outlooks

The conditions most likely to play out over the next few months—the combination of high interest rates, greater regulatory pressure, and potentially moderating, but still troubling, inflation—are trends many senior financial services industry (FSI) leaders have seen before. But many of their employees, especially those from younger generations, haven’t, so leaders will need to help their people navigate through the uncertainty and near-term challenges and to find opportunities.

They’ll also need to focus on what’s coming next. In 2024, technological turbulence—including generative AI, the transition to the cloud, increased fraud and cyber risk, and the blurring of industry lines such as the embedded finance trend—will require financial services leaders to be more agile than ever. New strategic options will need to be created to help firms tack in the direction of the prevailing winds, wherever they’re coming from.

History shows the financial services industry has frequently been a catalyst for progress, helping organizations and people manage economic and societal changes. By decade’s end, FSI leaders may look back at 2024 as the year the future started to unfold in real terms. Those who choose to invest in that future now—to catalyze the creation of new products and services that can enable positive outcomes—could set the stage to not only stay afloat but to gain competitive advantage for years to come.