Rapid response strategy for a leading payment player in GCC

When their brick-and-mortar payment and remittance operations faced mounting pressure from a new digital competitor, our client—one of the GCC's foremost banks—turned to us for strategic support. The digital attacker disrupted the market by offering seamless digital onboarding, lower-cost international payments, and targeting blue-collar workers with established payment corridors that enabled a cost-efficient structure. The impact was swift and significant: declining transaction volumes, revenues, and active customer counts placed our client's business on a trajectory toward financial losses within two years if unchecked.

To address this challenge, we devised a comprehensive three-horizon strategy:

1. Stabilizing the Business

Our immediate priority was halting the erosion of profitability. We conducted a detailed branch-level profitability analysis, leading to recommendations to close underperforming branches. These decisions were made with thorough consideration of legal, regulatory, and contractual factors to ensure a smooth transition.

2. Optimizing Legacy Operations

Within the constraints of the existing brick-and-mortar model, we introduced operational enhancements. This included revised branch operating hours, an optimized staffing model, and aggressive pricing and marketing initiatives to maximize revenue potential. The goal of this phase was to generate sufficient profits to fund the transformative changes required in the next horizon.

3. Transforming the Business Model

In this final phase, we guided our client in building a fully digital proposition. This transition unlocked significant cost savings by phasing out the physical branch network and passing those savings onto consumers. Leveraging their sizable existing customer base, our client integrated the digital offering with their mobile banking application, streamlining the KYC process to outperform even the digital challengers.

By the culmination of the transformation, our client's payment and remittance business not only rebounded but also achieved significant market share growth, solidifying its position as a leader in the GCC financial landscape.