Financial-services companies face a significant challenge: they need to reduce costs while ensuring they have the talent necessary to both run the business and continue to evolve in a highly dynamic marketplace. The “great resignation,” remote work, and enduring labor shortages have aggravated these challenges. At the same time, regulatory costs continue to rise, and upstarts from inside and outside the industry are taking a larger share of the revenue pie. With inflation persisting and recession looming, the road ahead isn’t getting any easier. Practically speaking, this means that cost reduction will continue to be the main lever available to meet shareholder expectations and improve metrics like return on tangible equity (ROTE).
