Problems › Operational Excellence Consulting › Banks & Financial Services
Improvement programmes in banks reliably improve branches and back-office processes that never limited origination or deposit stability, because those are the places with spare capacity to run the projects. Banks and financial services firms carry a specific bind here — the branch network is simultaneously the deposit moat and the cost problem — and the relationship knowledge sits in six people close to retirement. Until that is priced, efficiency ratio will keep moving for reasons nobody can attribute, and the debate about throughput at the constraint will stay a matter of opinion.
Improvement programmes in banks reliably improve branches and back-office processes that never limited origination or deposit stability, because those are the places with spare capacity to run the projects. Banks and financial services firms carry a specific bind here — the branch network is simultaneously the deposit moat and the cost problem — and the relationship knowledge sits in six people close to retirement. Until that is priced, efficiency ratio will keep moving for reasons nobody can attribute, and the debate about throughput at the constraint will stay a matter of opinion.
A bank has one scarce resource at any time that sets the rate of new commercial lending or stable low-cost deposits, whether that is experienced relationship managers, credit approval throughput, or branch staff who hold the customer knowledge. Activity that does not touch that resource simply adds headcount or systems cost that shows up in the efficiency ratio while origination per banker and net interest margin stay unchanged. The teams that can launch initiatives are by definition the ones not already at capacity, so the constraint itself receives no additional hours or focus.
The programme therefore produces visible standard work and reduced waste in areas that were already under-utilised, yet the commercial lending book and deposit totals do not move. Because the activity itself is measurable, leaders respond by authorising further rounds of work that again draw time from the same non-constraining teams, leaving cost of funds and efficiency ratio no better than before.
Often the constraint is occupied by accounts or loans that contribute little to net interest margin once deposit beta and origination effort are counted. When that happens the problem is not speed of processing but which relationships the scarce bankers are spending time on; applying process fixes only makes the low-margin work cheaper to service and therefore more attractive to repeat.
Efficiency Transformation Strategy (catalog id T12) begins with the current constraint and the contribution it generates per unit of banker time or deposit dollar, then identifies what would have to change for the next increment of capacity to improve either origination or cost of funds. Where the limit really is process speed rather than portfolio choice, the analysis directs lean work at that exact step.
These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.
✓ Efficiency ratio reports show gains in multiple departments while origination per banker and net interest margin remain flat.
✓ Different groups name different steps as the limit on new commercial lending, and the named bottleneck shifts after any reorganisation.
✓ The branches or teams that completed the largest number of improvement projects are the ones whose staff had the most unallocated time before the programme began.
The move that usually makes it worse. Rolling the same improvement method out to every branch and function, which uses the limited hours of relationship managers and credit staff on steps that were never the binding limit on deposits or lending.
It is for you if you run or finance a bank and a large number of completed improvement initiatives and unchanged output. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.
It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on a bank. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.
The subject is Harborline Financial Group, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — $3.1B commercial lending book, $410M of deposits.
Excerpt from a real Percision run · Customer Value Architecture · sample company profile
The move. Turn 71% of commercial borrowers into treasury customers at 65% contribution margin using existing branches and the 2027 core renewal.
The leak it closes. Reduces value transfer to fintech treasury platforms by locking 425 accounts into integrated deposit-lending workflow
The assumption it rests on. Core banking processor grants API depth at no incremental cost during 2027 renewal — the engine put the probability at 0.7.
| Investment required | $4–6M over 24 months ($2.5M technology integration, $1.5M 8 FTE hiring & training, $1M compliance & SOC-2 certification) |
| Expected return | 5.5× — $11M 5-year NPV on $5M investment |
| Revenue, year 1 | $0.45M incremental fee income (75 accounts × $4,200 × 65% margin × 6 months) |
| Revenue, year 2 | $1.79M incremental fee income (425 accounts × $4,200 × 65% margin) |
| Revenue, year 3 | $3.57M incremental fee income (850 accounts × $4,200 × 65% margin) |
| Exit criteria | Halt treasury build and reallocate remaining capital to SBA lending if (a) penetration <15% of overlap accounts by Month 18 OR (b) cumulative fee income < $800K by Month 18 OR (c) core-processor renewal does not include API depth clause by Month 6 |
This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.
This question routes to Efficiency Transformation Strategy, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For banks and financial services firms it works through efficiency ratio, cost of funds, origination per banker and deposit concentration, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.
You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.
They solve different problems and the choice matters less than the aim. Lean attacks flow and waiting; six sigma attacks variation and defects. If your problem is that things sit in queues, lean. If it is that outputs are inconsistent, six sigma. If you do not yet know which, the method choice is premature and either one will produce activity.
Assessment phases run roughly £40k–£120k. Full deployment with embedded practitioners and training is commonly £250k–£1m over a year, often quoted against a promised multiple of savings. Ask how the baseline is set and who verifies the savings, because self-verified benefits are the norm and they are systematically generous.
The method can — the material is public and cheap, and plenty of firms have taught themselves. What is genuinely hard to self-supply is the outside judgement about where to aim it and the willingness to say that a favoured department is not the problem. That is the part worth buying, and it is a much smaller purchase than a deployment.
Materially, yes. The branch network is simultaneously the deposit moat and the cost problem — and the relationship knowledge sits in six people close to retirement — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are efficiency ratio, cost of funds, origination per banker, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.
Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on efficiency ratio and cost of funds. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.
Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.
Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.
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