Capital Markets / Tech & Ops Benchmarking

Tech & Ops Benchmarking

Technology is becoming a critical competitive lever for financial institutions, with global bank spend projected to reach $600bn by 2028. BCG Expand supports this transformation through industry-leading benchmarking of Technology and Operations cost, effectiveness, and resourcing.

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The Opportunity

  • ✔Optimize technology spend to unlock greater CTB capacity
  • ✔Modernize the application and infrastructure landscape to scale cloud adoption and reduce legacy drag
  • ✔Streamline spans and layers to improve agility, accountability, and decision-making speed

How we can help

Cost Mix Benchmarking

We perform full cost analysis by cost type and driver across infrastructure vs. development, run/change, vendor software, application hosting, and end user technology to assess total cost-of ownership at a product or function level

Application & DevOps Productivity

We assess application landscape, incidents and MTTR, deployment frequency, and change failure rate to improve delivery effectiveness and operational performance.

Infrastructure

Analysis of cost per unit across servers, storage, and end-user technology, plus assessment of server distribution and utilisation. Estate-rationalisation insights inform cloud adoption decisions and vendor optimisation to reduce infrastructure expenditure by 15–25%.

Workforce Benchmarking

We analyse FTE mix, role structure, contract type, and location strategy to optimise team design, strengthen delivery capacity, and ensure scalability and cost efficiency.

Developer Productivity Benchmarking

We benchmark engineering practices and development methodologies to identify opportunities to improve throughput, reduce friction, and enhance overall delivery velocity.

Delivery Governance Review

We evaluate governance structures and delivery workflows to surface bottlenecks, streamline execution, and shorten deployment timelines across technology teams.

Client success stories

$1bn+ cost efficiencies identified through optimization of Change-the-Bank versus Run-the-Bank spend
15–25% 15–25% Infrastructure cost optimization achieved through estate simplification and vendor consolidation.
10–20% faster delivery cycles driven by automation and cloud adoption.
EUR 1.4B IT overspend uncovered across all lines of business relative to peers, revealing significant optimization potential.

Case Studies

APAC Bank

Enhanced application landscape assessment across Commercial Banking with benchmarking that identified significant estate complexity, duplication and high application age

Canadian Bank

Increased in-source capability following benchmarking of resourcing strategy and workforce composition across Commercial Banking.

Tier 1 European Universal Bank

Identified a 43% IT overspend and revealed excessive investment in legacy applications and vendor-dependent systems, enabling the bank to redesign sourcing, streamline its application estate, and align spend with industry benchmarks across Corporate Banking.

The Opportunitiy

  • ✔Optimize Run-the-Bank expenditure by improving visibility into Operations cost drivers and technology
    allocations.
  • ✔Enhance operational efficiency by reducing duplication across Operations processes.
  • ✔Improve transparency of total cost of ownership (TCO) to support better investment prioritization and
    strategic decision-making.
  • ✔Increase process automation and workflow efficiency to reduce manual intervention and improve accuracy across operations.

How we can help

Spend Benchmarking

We perform full cost analysis by business line, cost type, and driver across Operations and Operations IT Spend to assess total cost of ownership and identify optimization opportunities at a product or function level. We benchmark Cost per Trade, STP rates, and operational KPIs across products and functions to identify efficiency opportunities, streamline workflows, and prioritize automation.

Cost per Trade & Operational Efficiency

We link Operations cost structures to business performance metrics including revenues, operating expense, and productivity to highlight structural optimization opportunities.

Business Performance Alignment

We review end-to-end processes across front, middle, and back office to eliminate duplication, streamline handoffs, and reduce the overall cost-to-serve.

Workforce Benchmarking

We analyse location strategy, contract type, seniority mix, and cost-per-head to identify scalable, balanced, and cost-effective operating-model options.

Organisational Design Review

We assess spans and layers, governance structures, and role alignment to remove duplication, improve accountability, and strengthen operational resilience.

Sourcing & Vendor Mix Optimisation

We evaluate internal vs outsourced delivery models and contractor dependency to reduce cost, mitigate risk, and enhance operational agility.

Client success stories

$500M+ operations cost savings uncovered through peer-scaled benchmarking and process simplification.
20% productivity uplift achieved by redesigning Operations organization structure to improve team effectiveness and broader capabilities.
~5pp improvement in cost-to-income ratio (CIR) through elimination of duplication and improved process control.
4 layers removed, streamlining operating model and preventing duplication.

Insights

Tech in Banking 2025: Transformation Starts with Smarter Tech Investment

Technology is one of the most powerful levers for financial institutions to build competitive advantage. Smart tech investments, including the deployment of emerging agentic AI capabilities, can reinvent the customer journey, increase speed to market, enable personalization of customer interactions, and drive efficiencies throughout the business. Yet, while banks are making ambitious investments in tech, they frequently miss out on capturing these potential opportunities. So, what’s stopping them?

Read the report

“The granularity to which BCG Expand’s analysis goes, particularly for the functional breakdowns, is by far more useful than any benchmarking I’ve come across. For executives, it’s all about the trend—and the fact that it aligns with our reality makes it extremely valuable. There is great value in what you guys do.”

Director Canadian Bank

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