Payments / 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, Operations and Corporate Functions costs, effectiveness, and resourcing. Alongside tech insights, our Operations and Corporate Functions benchmarking enables institutions to simplify processes, improve productivity and support the business.

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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 utilization. Estate-rationalization insights inform cloud adoption decisions and vendor optimization to reduce infrastructure expenditure by 15–25%.

Impact Metrics

$1bn+ cost efficiencies identified through optimization of Change-the-Bank versus Run-the-Bank spend
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 STP rates, manual interventions, error rates, unmatched confirmations, and operational losses to identify workflow bottlenecks and automation opportunities.

Cost per Trade & Operational Efficiency

We benchmark Cost per Trade, STP rates, and operational KPIs across products and functions to identify efficiency opportunities, streamline workflows, and prioritize automation.

Business Performance Alignment

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

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.

Case Studies

Regional Universal Bank

Benchmarking revealed ~$250m in addressable operations-cost savings and a 5-point CIR improvement, forming the foundation for an enterprise-wide efficiency programme.

Global Universal Bank

The bank streamlined front-to-back processes based on benchmarking insights, improving workflow visibility and enhancing operational control across global service lines.

Tier 1 Investment Bank

Doubled Operations IT investment into CIB after benchmarking highlighted peers had invested significantly more for several years, accelerating the delivery of automation upgrades

Insights

Banking on IT Outsourcing: Finding the Sweet Spot

Finding the right balance between in-house IT and outsourcing is key. Learn how financial institutions can optimize costs, efficiency and risk

Read the report

Tech in Banking 2025: Transformation Starts with Smarter Tech Investment

Banks are investing more in tech than ever. With smarter spending and simplification, they can unlock innovation, resilience, and lasting competitive edge

Read the report

"Of all my projects, the CIO Dashboard gives me the best ROI.”

CIO Large North American Bank

BCG Expand’s benchmarking gave us a clear view of where to invest and modernise. The data and insights delivered real, quantifiable impact.”

Head of Technology Transformation Global Investment Bank

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