Banking industry and tax challenges

Responding to the financial industry’s ongoing transformation

For several years, the banking industry has been undergoing a major transformation. New compliance requirements, digital challengers entering the market, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and the expectations of new generations are driving the industry to reinvent itself and place innovation at the heart of its strategy.

Increasing regulations (e.g., DAC 6, the first and second Anti-Tax Avoidance Directives and the Multilateral Instrument), the growing cost of compliance, and new challenges such as Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic have stressed financial industry players’ existing ways of working and operating models, leading them to revisit their organizations and business models. All these changes and challenges also offer opportunities that are ripe to be seized by the industry.

If tax was sometimes viewed as a mere cost to suffer in the past, the rise of tax governance and policy topics has made tax a major part of organizations’ strategies. At any moment, tax is a key component of the lifespan of a financial institution or its clients, including its setup, reorganization, organic growth and innovation. If properly managed, tax can also boost and accompany players’ business strategies, for example with tax incentives and environmental, social and governance (ESG) tax topics.