Market Entry Strategy: Advised C-level Executives

A Japanese bank undertook business development planning for the US, European and Asian (ex-Japan) markets in the long term (3-6 years).

As a pre-study of this initiative, the bank was looking for support from GreySpark to provide market research on five business domains: OTC Derivatives (middle and back office); Collateral Management; Corporate Actions Processing; Cashflow Management; and Client on-boarding.

In particular, GreySpark assisted with:

• Market sizing: Assessment of financial results from vendors and estimation of Tier 1 to 3 banks’ IT budgets.
• Vendor profiling: Functional coverage.
• Market Trends: Impact of new products and services; Regulatory changes; and outsourcing versus in-house.

GreySpark deployed a senior project team with domain knowledge across Middle and Back office investment banking technology and with experience undertaking market intelligence research.

The research was based on:

• Desk-based research;
• Interviews with CIO/CTO/Head of IT/Head of Operations in Tiers 1-3 Investment Banks;
• Consolidation and analysis of interview feedbacks into a bespoke report; and
• Vendor analysis gathered from interviews with the vendor and their clients.

GreySpark delivered the project in two consecutive phases:

Phase 1

Five initial market sizing models:

• OTC Derivatives Operations
• Collateral Management
• Corporate Action Processing
• Cashflow Management
• Client Onboarding

Phase 2

Five detailed sectoral reports (one per in-scope segment) covering:

• Refined market sizing model
• Competitive landscape (positioning, strength and weaknesses, market share)
• Underlying market trends

• GreySpark helped the client to build long-term strategic plans aligned with their priorities.
• GreySpark helped the client to understand the ins and outs as well as the key requirement related to entering the technology software market in Europe and the US.
• The client was able to leverage GreySpark’s work during C-level executives meetings to present long-term views on the strategy and the key development areas that the bank should focus on over the next few years.