BCG’s European IT Benchmarking in Banking

With the rise of cloud migration, fintech disruption, and cyber threats, European banks face a variety of serious IT challenges. Which issues should they tackle first? And how much should they spend? BCG’s European IT Benchmarking in Banking (EITBB) tool helps financial institutions frame such questions and provides the data they need to find the answers. Using EITBB is the first step in a successful IT transformation.

This interactive product is designed to help European bank strategists understand their institution’s place in the competitive landscape. For the past 14 years, more than 40 of Europe’s leading banks have participated in our annual benchmarking, from which the data behind the EITBB is gathered—data that ultimately helps banks assess both IT performance and digital readiness.

The EITBB can help your institution answer such critical questions as:

  • Do we need to restructure our project portfolio?
  • How do our server and storage costs compare with those of competitors?
  • Where do we stand with our online and mobile offerings?
  • Should we bolster internal resources and reduce outsourcing?
  • How can we scale agile development most efficiently?
  • What’s the best approach to acquiring digital expertise?

How EITBB Works

The EITBB is a multilayered product. The BCG team facilitates an ongoing conversation with bank leaders at the C-suite level, and ensures high data quality and comparability through several rounds of validation with the bank’s IT controlling departments. All data and findings can then be viewed using an app or an online dashboard that features an overview of the bank’s IT performance (relative to the average) via multiple high-level steering ratios.

For a more focused view, strategists can leverage an advanced interface to assess their performance across more than 500 KPIs. These indicators include those classified by regional or market-cap subgroups, and involve detailed information on the industry’s latest IT concerns—such as big data, DevOps, and cybersecurity.

EITBB gives bank strategists a 360-degree view of their own operations, allowing them to compare performance from four perspectives:

  • Cost type, whether personnel, external support and outsourcing, or materials
  • Accounting, including IT running costs, with depreciation and amortization
  • Functional, from IT infrastructure and operations to application development
  • Business segment, including retail banking, corporate banking, capital markets, and asset management

State-of-the-Art Interface and Verification

Like BCG’s other benchmarking services, the EITBB is adaptable to your needs. The EITBB app makes it easy to compare your functions against the market, with results available within four weeks of signing up for the program. Participants also receive a comprehensive benchmarking report with customized details, including support with the data validation.

This product—and the services attached—can be implemented quickly, providing banks with actionable insights that are relevant to the current European market.

To learn more about EITBB, please contact our experts at EITBB@bcg.com.