2018 Banking Industry Outlook

For 2018 and beyond, banks must contend with multiple challenges tied to regulations, legacy systems, disruptive models and technologies, new competitors, and a restive customer base while pursuing new strategies for sustainable growth. Our 2018 Banking Industry Outlook examines the six macro themes—from customer centricity to cyber risk—facing each of the industry’s five primary business segments in the coming 12-to-18 months. Firms that can address these emerging challenges and opportunities to effectively balance long-term goals with short-term performance pressures could be amply rewarded.

Playing the long game

For banks globally, 2018 could be a pivotal year in accelerating the transformation into more strategically focused, technologically modern, and operationally agile institutions, so that they may remain dominant in a rapidly evolving ecosystem.

This metamorphosis is far from easy as most banks grapple with multiple challenges: complex and diverging regulations, legacy systems, disruptive models and technologies, new competitors, and, last but not least, an often restive customer base with ever-higher expectations.

In this outlook we explore the challenges most banks face in balancing the need to restructure their foundations for the long-term with finding near-term growth.

We do so by identifying six macro themes that should be critical for long-term growth:

1. Customer centricity
2. Regulatory recalibration
3. Technology management
4. Mitigating cyber risk
5. Fintechs and big techs
6. Reimagining the workforce.