Large-scale improvement projects, regulatory compliance to drive demand
There's no denying that financial services practices are humming again. Hank Prybylski is Global Financial Services Risk Management practice leader for Ernst & Young. He currently leads a team of partners located across the world's major financial centers who oversee more than 900 risk management and regulatory compliance professionals. Effective July 1, Prybylski will become Advisory Services practice leader for Ernst & Young's Americas Financial Services Office where he will oversee 1,400 professionals. Prybylski sat down recently with Consulting to discuss the financial services marketplace and the future of EY's practice.
Consulting: What are you seeing in financial services right now?
Prybylski: We're seeing an extremely strong market; lots of demand both domestically and globally. I would characterize it two ways—a while ago it was very remediation driven. The last nine months or so there has been a lot of response to regulatory challenges, transaction integration and the compliance agenda. We're seeing that continuing and accelerating as global regulators begin to form some consistency on key issues. In the last six months or so, we've seen firms across all financial services dimensions look at core improvement and infrastructure projects. We're starting to get to some projects that may have been deferred or getting to projects that clients view they need to become more competitive. Firms are beginning to say 'what can we begin to do now to re-invest in future positioning.' That's why we're seeing clients focused on the operational agenda and management reporting.
Consulting: Has the rebound that we've experienced in financial services over the last year or so surprised you?
Prybylski: If you rolled it back a year ago, I think we would have predicted a large demand on things that are largely stakeholder driven—board reporting information, regulatory focus, risk management. I would say we've been pleasantly surprised that firms have been willing to launch large-scale improvement projects in what is still a largely uncertain earnings environment. To me, that's a very positive indicator of where we are right now. We're seeing some firms that are beginning to think about what they need to do to best position themselves as we begin to come out of this economy.
Consulting: What type of client work are you talking about, specifically?
Prybylski: If you think about greater demand from counter parties concerning information, you have to have more flexible information and data sources. They'll need to have much higher mission-critical data quality. If you look at the way derivatives are cleared, you have to ask: What does that mean to an operating model? How do you build more scalable operating systems to be flexible to those up and down volumes? I look at those as more forward-looking investments and top-down strategic positioning. Clients are focused on changes in the business environment that are either directly or indirectly impacted by the financial crisis and regulatory expectations.
Consulting: How does the business break out geographically?
Prybylski : The financial crisis hit North America and Europe differently than in other parts of the world. The regulatory environment is more pronounced in these areas, but not so much in Asia. On a long-term model basis, we see financial services in Europe and North America continuing to grow. When you look in Asia, we see higher growth multiples but coming from a somewhat smaller base. On a longer-term basis, we think those two markets would reach more of a balance. I think we'll see continued good growth in North America and Europe and hyper growth in Asia. For our financial services consulting practice in the Americas, we're forecasting a compound annual growth rate in excess of 20 percent between now and 2013. We anticipate that our headcount growth will track along this same line and that these forecasts mirror our global growth projections.
Consulting: Is talent one of your biggest concerns right now?
Prybylski: The job market has gotten a lot better. When we look at growth plans and we look at talent as one of the key issues, if not the key issue, on our growth agenda.
—J.K.
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