The financial services sector is undergoing unprecedented disruption, a wild ride created by the digital revolution smashing up against COVID-19’s social and business upheavals. The collision of these two forces in 2020 and 2021 quickly altered the competitive landscape. Financial services institutions (FSIs) had to become smarter and more nimble, working in new ways with unfamiliar technologies at an unparalleled pace to meet escalating digital demands of clients. Firms also had to deal with increased competition as fintechs and technology giants looked to take advantage of uncertain macro and micro economic environments. The phrase “inflection point” is often misapplied to characterize various competitive shifts, but we believe it accurately describes what leaders in financial services face today. In this paper, we lay out the industry’s current state as seen through the eyes of practitioners, how cloud technologies are being used as an accelerant to drive growth and return on investment (ROI), and what lies ahead for our clients over the next few years.
In September 2021, Wipro FullStride Cloud Services released its global survey and report: Making Business Thrive: A Cloud Leader Roadmap for Achieving 10x ROI. Wipro’s robust dataset included 1,300 responses from C-level executives and key decision-makers across 11 industries, of which 26% were financial services related — specifically, banking, insurance, and capital markets, such as wealth advisory and asset management firms. ThoughtLab worked in partnership with Wipro/Capco to develop the survey and take a deeper look at the financial services data to identify trends and opportunities that firms should be thinking about to become cloud leaders.
