Transformation Solutions

Corporate Banking Sales Transformation & Business Turnaround

Challenge

An APAC universal bank was experiencing persistent underperformance across its Corporate Banking sales segment, particularly within Cash, Trade, and Securities Services. Over multiple fiscal years, the business unit failed to meet both its revenue and balance sheet growth targets, undermining its position in key markets and straining its asset-liability balance.

The segment had a large-scale portfolio — $26 billion in cash liabilities and $23 billion in assets/contingents — yet struggled to convert this balance sheet strength into sustainable profitability. Key challenges included:

• Declining client retention and shrinking transaction volumes.

• Lack of integrated client account planning and pipeline forecasting discipline.

• Absence of analytical tools linking business performance to client-level drivers.

• Weak coordination between product, relationship, and operations teams.

• Fragmented innovation pipeline and missed cross-sell opportunities.

The mandate was to design and implement a transformation strategy that would reinvigorate growth, improve client engagement, and realign the unit’s operating model to deliver stronger returns on capital.

Solution

Harmonic Strategy designed and led a Corporate Banking Transformation Program structured around four core workstreams — Client Strategy, Analytical Enablement, Product Optimization, and Growth Governance — ensuring the turnaround combined strategy, execution, and measurable performance tracking.

1. Strategic Portfolio Realignment

• Conducted a comprehensive business diagnostic of the Corporate Banking portfolio across Cash, Trade, and Securities Services.

• Mapped product performance to client profitability and balance sheet impact.

• Designed a segmentation and prioritization model focusing on high-value corporate clients and ecosystem clusters.

• Worked directly with the Global Head of Corporate Banking to recommend structural changes in client coverage, pricing, and balance sheet allocation.

• Developed a multi-year turnaround strategy linking product-level KPIs to overall segment financial performance.

2. Data-Driven Account Planning & Forecasting

• Built a portfolio sensitivity and revenue forecasting model integrating variables such as market risks, pipeline momentum, and client retention probabilities.

• Improved forecast accuracy to >95%, enabling leadership to identify underperforming clients and rebalance resource allocation.

• Enhanced start-of-year client account planning with actionable analytics tied to relationship depth, wallet share, and pipeline conversion.

• Shifted focus from transactional revenue to lifecycle profitability — measuring value through recurring business and cross-product adoption.

3. Ecosystem & Innovation Strategy

• Served as a core member of the “Banking the Ecosystem” working group, designing a strategy to capture value from client supply chain interlinkages.

• Launched initiatives to target anchor clients and their upstream/downstream partners, fostering network-driven deal origination.

• Advised on the creation of the Innovation Hub, focused on co-developing digital tools with strategic clients.

• Designed the strategic model encompassing Position → Choices → Action, ensuring clear decision pathways from strategy to execution.

4. Digital Enablement & Analytics Transformation

• Spearheaded the rollout of the Workbench ERP and Tableau Analytics Transformation projects to digitise front-office processes and enhance commercial insight.

• Developed interactive visual dashboards for performance tracking, deal pipeline management, and product-level analytics.

• Introduced exploratory analytics tools for client research and business development, enabling faster data-to-decision cycles.

• Result: Cash and Trade deal pipelines grew by +15% and +17%, respectively, with a +10% increase in win/loss ratios, translating to $25 million in new annualised business.

5. Trade Optimization and Return Improvement

• Led the Trade Optimization Project, redefining how trade portfolios were managed based on return efficiency.

• Segmented trade exposures into three sub-portfolios, each with tailored improvement plans to enhance pricing, tenor management, and counterparty diversification.

• Partnered with Product and Finance teams to model capital usage efficiency and design RoRWA improvement strategies.

• Achieved a doubling of Return on Risk-Weighted Assets (RoRWA) from ~1.6% to 3.3%, materially improving business line profitability.

Key Deliverables

• Corporate Banking Turnaround Strategy Blueprint

• Portfolio Sensitivity & Revenue Forecast Model (>95% accuracy)

• Ecosystem Growth & Innovation Strategy Model

• Workbench ERP / Tableau Analytics Transformation Framework

• Trade Optimization & RoRWA Improvement Plan

• Executive Governance & Performance Dashboard

Client Benefits

• Reversed two consecutive years of declining revenues, achieving +8.3% sales growth (+$39 million) in the following fiscal year.

• Strengthened data-driven forecasting and client coverage discipline across all Corporate Banking subsegments.

• Improved front-office productivity and decision velocity through digital analytics tools.

• Enhanced cross-functional collaboration across Sales, Product, and Finance teams.

• Institutionalised an ecosystem-led client strategy, expanding the addressable market and introducing new innovation-led initiatives.

• Established a scalable transformation framework replicable across other geographies and product lines.