Market assessments and entry playbooks (Financial Services)

This is where many entry projects fail. Large consultancies often deliver broad commentary and polished slides that don’t survive contact with the real operating environment. Specialist advisers can be excellent, but their work is frequently siloed by discipline (legal, compliance, tax, technology), leaving the client to stitch everything together.

 

Our focus is to give you one coherent narrative, one practical plan, and one accountable lead. You tell the story once, then we run the process with you, turning research and stakeholder input into structured decisions.

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A market assessment also needs to reflect the reality of where capital, competition, and adoption are moving. Globally, fintech funding fell from USD 119.8bn in 2023 to USD 95.6bn in 2024, according to KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech (based on PitchBook data).

 

Figure 1. Global fintech investment (KPMG Pulse of Fintech)

Download: sandbox:/mnt/data/chart_global_fintech_investment_kpmg_2023_2024.png

Reference (full web address): https://kpmg.com/xx/en/media/press-releases/2025/02/global-fintech-investment-falls-to-seven-year-low.html

That shift matters because it changes the competitive landscape: fewer “growth at any cost” models, more scrutiny on unit economics, more demand for credible governance, and a higher bar for investor-grade market narratives.

 

If you are entering a market to raise capital, win institutional partners, or build a regulated proposition, the entry plan needs to reflect those conditions rather than last decade’s playbook.

At the same time, consumer adoption of regulated financial services and digital payments has moved structurally upward.

 

The World Bank’s Global Findex reports that in 2021, 76% of adults worldwide had an account at a bank or regulated institution (including mobile money), up from 51% in 2011. 
 
Figure 2. Global account ownership (World Bank Global Findex)

Download: sandbox:/mnt/data/chart_global_account_ownership_findex_2011_2021.png

Reference (full web address): https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex/interactive-executive-summary-visualization 

In developing economies, the same source shows the share of adults making or receiving digital payments increased from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021. 
 
Figure 3. Digital payments usage in developing economies (World Bank Global Findex)
Download: sandbox:/mnt/data/chart_digital_payments_developing_2014_2021.png
Reference (full web address): https://www.worldbank.org/en/publication/globalfindex/interactive-executive-summary-visualization 

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What this means in practice is that “market entry” is not only about demand; it is about competing in a world where customers expect speed, clarity, and service, while regulators and counterparties expect evidence, governance, and control.

A credible market assessment for financial services should answer five questions clearly

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First, what activity are you actually performing, and where does it sit in the regulatory perimeter? The same product can be treated very differently across jurisdictions depending on how it is distributed, who holds client assets, how advice is defined, and how remuneration works. If you don’t settle this early, you end up rebuilding the plan midstream.

Second, what is your distribution route and who “owns” the client relationship? Direct-to-consumer, intermediated, workplace, institutional, introducer-based, bank partnerships, platform distribution and white-labelling each have different acquisition economics, servicing burdens, and regulatory implications. In wealth and advisory models, this also ties into suitability evidence, ongoing review cadence, and complaint handling.

Third, what is your operating model, and what are the binding constraints? Onboarding, KYC/AML, screening, data residency, outsourcing, custody/platform integration, reporting, client communications, and operational resilience requirements often determine the true speed-to-revenue. In other words, your plan is only as fast as your slowest operational dependency.

Fourth, what does the competitive landscape look like beyond the obvious names? In most markets you are not competing only with banks or only with fintechs. You are competing with distribution access, embedded finance, incumbents with trust, and operators with lower cost-to-serve. We build competitor landscapes that cover regulated peers, adjacent substitutes, and route-to-market gatekeepers (platforms, custodians, introducers, aggregators, employers, and strategic partners).

Fifth, what is the commercial reality? A market entry plan needs decision-grade assumptions: realistic customer acquisition costs, conversion rates, onboarding abandonment, fee sensitivity, retention expectations, cost-to-serve by segment, and the working capital required to survive a ramp period. This is where many entry plans become “aspirational” rather than investable.

Our work is structured so the output is not commentary; it is a practical blueprint. A typical playbook includes:

A market framing pack that summarises the opportunity in plain language, defines the target segments, and sizes the addressable market using defensible assumptions and sources.

A competitor and counterparty landscape that maps direct competitors, substitutes, and the key gatekeepers you must work with (or around). This includes product positioning, pricing and fee layering comparisons, distribution routes, and service model differences.

A regulatory and permissions pathway that outlines the likely routes (and trade-offs) based on your operating preference. Where formal legal opinions or regulated compliance advice is required, we coordinate with appropriately licensed professionals, but we keep the plan coherent and sequenced.

A go-to-market operating plan that covers distribution, onboarding, KYC/AML approach, data and outsourcing considerations, staffing assumptions, vendor selection criteria, and a practical implementation timeline.

A risk and controls view that highlights where entry projects typically fail: weak evidence standards, unclear responsibility, outsourcing oversight gaps, poor management information, and over-reliance on a few key individuals.

A decision pack for leadership that frames “go / no-go / go with conditions”, including milestones, dependencies, costs, and what must be true for the plan to succeed.

Clients should be comfortable because the work is senior-led, delivery-driven, and capacity-controlled.

 

You won’t be passed between teams, and you won’t have to repeat your story.

 

You get a single accountable lead and an approach designed to convert complexity into practical decisioning.

Our forte is joining the dots across commercial reality, operational execution, and the governance and evidence standards financial services demand.

 

We are UAE-based but globally active, and we build plans that work across jurisdictions and cross-border operating models, using a wider professional network where specialist input is needed, without outsourcing the ownership of the outcome.

The outcome is simple: clarity. You leave with a credible narrative, a sequenced playbook, and a plan you can execute, invest in, and defend to partners, boards, regulators, and capital providers.

If you are considering a new jurisdiction, a new regulated activity, a new distribution route, or a new platform/custody model, book a discovery meeting.

 

We will confirm objectives, identify constraints early, and produce a market entry playbook with decision-ready outputs rather than generic commentary.