Introduction
The financial services (FS) industry is currently facing drastic changes triggered by external and internal drivers. Banks are experiencing significant restructuring and common business models are being challenged by the current market situation. Further consolidation within the banking industry is expected and the industry is facing regulation in the market.

Even though the insurance sector has not been as dramatically affected by the financial market crisis, it will also have to restructure its business due to decreasing customer loyalty and margin erosion.

Immense efforts have been taken in all markets of the financial services industry to improve efficiency and operational readiness. One established approach to effectively do this has been the Shared Service Centre (SSC) concept.

We can define SSCs as organisational units that provide supporting processes to customers beyond the demand of one single business unit (which can include externalorganisations) and focus on the shared use of resources (Fischer et al. 2006). By unbundling and centralising activities, the basis premise for a SSC is that services provided by one local department can readily be offered to others. The advanced use of information technology allows for geographical and time-shared separation to facilitate collaboration with core business units. The joint, “shared” use of the resources allows for efficiencies of scale, synergy realisations and improved quality of services.

The financial services industry has experienced some very encouraging examples of SSCs. Since this industry currently faces a challenging environment and previous studies have not focussed specifically on the financial sector, BearingPoint initiated this pan-European study to analyse the current status and future trends of SSCs for the financial services industry. The study examines the industry specifics and potential for SSCs, what has been attained and, more Interestingly, what has not been achieved but may be accomplished in the near future. The study has been conducted with support of the E-Finance Lab, a network of companies from the financial services industry and academic partners. We hope that this study contributes to the current discussion and development of Shared Service Centres in the financial services industry.

For the study we asked banking and insurance companies in European countries to share their experiences about the introduction and operation of Shared Service Centres (SSC). In addition, the study analyses the future trends and the impact of companies’ innovation and SSCs.

Please press the link to download the study.

Contact Norway
Thomas Magnus, Senior Manager, +47 918 53393
thomas.magnus@bearingpointconsulting.com