KPMG Banking and Capital Markets CEO Outlook

From macroeconomic developments to the use of artificial intelligence (AI): How do executives in the financial industry assess the most pressing issues – and how do they rate their own growth prospects? Answers can be found in the English-language KPMG Banking and Capital Markets CEO Outlook. 

The eleventh edition of our survey of 1,350 CEOs offers unique insight into the thinking, strategies and planning approaches of top international executives. The special Banking and Capital Markets analysis focuses on the responses of the 110 CEOs from banks and securities firms who were surveyed.

The CEOs surveyed are cautiously optimistic, anticipating growth in revenue and earnings, and are realigning their merger and acquisition strategy to focus on strategic, value-enhancing transactions. AI has evolved from the pilot phase to series production and has become a central component of operating models, customer experience, fraud detection and cyber defence. It is striking that executives are increasingly convinced of the short-term return on investment (ROI) of AI.

At the same time, CEOs recognise the need to build internal trust in AI and to address ethical issues, data quality and governance in order to ensure fair and transparent results.

One focus is on further training staff and deploying them in other areas of the company and tasks. Role profiles and entry-level qualifications are being redefined to enable human-machine collaboration that increases productivity without compromising the human factor. Sustainability and compliance are also being integrated into all risk, credit and finance functions to promote energy efficiency, climate risk modelling and more robust ESG reporting.