The future of finance in banking

The role of Finance is continuing to evolve, including the role of the CFO who is essentially becoming the ‘Chief Value Officer’ - tasked with both protecting and maximising the value created by the business while also challenging and informing strategy.

Within the banking sector Finance functions are facing several internal and external pressures. Key internal pressures include managing operational constraints, addressing multiple data sourcing and governance challenges, optimising scarce resources, supporting business evolution, and addressing increased regulatory requirements and expectations. Externally, banks are also facing disruptions such as economic flux, sustainability expectations, shifting demographics and changing customer behaviours, and an increased rate of technological innovation. All these pressures create both disruption and opportunity. Finance needs to play a key role in the response.  

PwC’s research however shows that there is a clear misalignment between the expectations of Finance, and the reality:

• Only 24% of banks explicitly link growth strategies with KPIs despite an expectation of alignment. 

• 54% of CEOs are dissatisfied with the financial forecasts they receive yet they expect timely, relevant and actionable forecasts. 

• 55% of CEOs are dissatisfied with the management information they receive yet they expect an accurate evaluation of growth opportunities. 

• Despite organisations expecting optimal finance functions, 60% rely on manual spreadsheets, 65% don’t link metrics and budgets to strategy, and 70% don’t link staff incentives. 

It is therefore key that Finance functions evolve beyond their traditional roles and become valuable strategic advisors enabled by technology, thereby ensuring a closer alignment between expectations and reality.

Recommended actions to take

Finance functions need to take an agile and multi-stranded response to meet this challenge. Key focus areas include:

• increasing shared capabilities, 

• defining end-to-end processes and owners,

• investing in core technologies and moving towards touchless operations and self-service reporting, 

• driving insight-led partnering, 

• engaging and empowering talent, and 

• leveraging GenAI - experimenting safely and at pace. 

Through this, the elevated finance function can provide benefits such as increased insights and automation, lower finance costs, and faster decision-making. 

The time is now. Many banks are poised to rebuild the value proposition of their finance function to generate additional value whilst simultaneously tackling significant challenges.