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SERVICE INFRASTRUCTURE

Consulting & Advisory

Hired expertise from outside: shows how to do it when no one inside knows how.

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Its role in the system

The hired brain of the financial system: consultants bring in experience a firm lacks internally — from a bank's strategy, to vetting a company before it is bought, to pulling a debtor back from bankruptcy. They do not move money themselves, but they often decide where and how it will be directed, and they carry practices between companies and countries.

Functions

  1. Strategy consulting — where to grow, which markets and products to pick, whether to buy a competitor or exit a business (McKinsey, BCG, Bain).
  2. Risk and regulatory consulting — risk models, stress tests, implementing IFRS 9, Basel requirements, AML processes, digital resilience rules.
  3. Transaction services — due diligence (checking a company before a purchase: is the profit real, what debts are hidden), business valuation, the financial model of the deal.
  4. M&A and debt advisers — run the sale or purchase of a company, raise financing, negotiate with creditors — from boutique firms to advisers to governments.
  5. Restructuring and turnaround management — a rescue plan for a company in crisis, interim management, running an insolvency (Alvarez & Marsal, FTI).
  6. Operational and digital transformation — processes, IT systems, replacing core banking, automation, AI (Accenture, Capgemini).

What makes it special

  • How it earns, and how the firm is built: payment per project or for the team's time; in M&A and restructuring there is also a success fee — a payment that depends on the deal closing. Hence the pyramid: analyst → consultant → manager → partner, and a grow-or-leave rule — which is why consulting is a popular "school" before moving into corporates, funds or fintech.
  • A profession without a licence — with exceptions: anyone can become a consultant. Particular activities are regulated: advisers who work with securities usually need a licence (🇺🇸 FINRA, 🇬🇧 FCA), and audit networks apply independence rules. The role is what separates consulting from its neighbours: an auditor checks independently, a consultant helps the client reach a goal, and an investment bank also places securities and puts its own balance sheet at risk.
  • The main risk is conflict of interest and confidentiality: a consultant sees the inside information of clients — often of competitors, and of government bodies; a leak of that knowledge destroys trust (the PwC Australia case).
  • 🇨🇳 China: due diligence under national security law: an adviser's routine job — gathering data on a market, its competitors and a target company before a deal — runs straight into national security law: the revised counter-espionage law, in force since 1 July 2023, protects not only state secrets but any documents, data and materials “relating to national security and interests”. In the spring of 2023 police went through Mintz Group's Beijing office and Bain's Shanghai office, and the raid on the expert-network firm Capvision was shown on state television; since then due diligence in China is done far more carefully and the data is kept inside the country.
  • 🇯🇵 Japan: the deal adviser's playbook was rewritten: METI's Guidelines for Corporate Takeovers (August 2023) require a board to sincerely consider a bona fide offer to buy the company, to judge it first by value to shareholders and to obtain shareholder approval for defensive measures. Brushing off an uninvited bidder because management would rather not sell is no longer an option — so the adviser now walks both the bidder and the board through a written procedure.

Why it matters

Consultants rarely cause crises, but their recommendations shape decisions worth billions. Bad advice, a conflict of interest or a leak of confidential information damages both the client and trust in the profession; and in a crisis it is often the advisers who save whatever can still be saved.

🇦🇺 PwC Australia, 2023

A PwC partner advised the government on new rules against shifting profits out of the country, and the firm used that confidential information to sell services to international clients. After the investigation senior people left or were dismissed, and the government consulting practice was sold for one Australian dollar — which is how Scyne Advisory was born.

🇪🇺 The ECB's comprehensive assessment of banks, 2014

Before taking on supervision of the largest euro-area banks, the ECB reviewed the asset quality of 130 banks; the bulk of the work — thousands of checks of loan files and collateral — was done by audit and consulting teams. In October 2014, 25 banks failed the assessment with a combined capital shortfall of 25 billion euro. The case shows how consultants become the regulator's hands in the largest reviews.

Links to other zones · 9

  • Audit & AssuranceConsulting & Advisory and Audit & Assurance sit inside the same Big Four firms, and independence rules keep the two roles apart for any single client.
  • Banking & Credit InstitutionsConsulting & Advisory works with Banking & Credit Institutions on strategy, risk models, regulatory implementation, new IT systems and bank mergers.
  • Corporations & Corporate FinanceConsulting & Advisory earns most of its fees from Corporations & Corporate Finance: strategy, mergers and acquisitions, debt restructuring and finance transformation.
  • Development BanksDevelopment Banks hire Consulting & Advisory to prepare a project, measure its impact and structure a public-private partnership.
  • Education & CertificationAn MBA or a professional qualification from Education & Certification is the usual ticket into Consulting & Advisory, and the firms run their own internal training as part of an up-or-out career model.
  • Fiscal PolicyConsulting & Advisory advises Fiscal Policy on sovereign debt restructuring, privatisation and reform.
  • Investment & Pension FundsConsulting & Advisory serves Investment & Pension Funds with pre-acquisition due diligence and with operational work inside portfolio companies.
  • Regulation & SupervisionConsulting & Advisory helps institutions meet new rules from Regulation & Supervision, and supervisors occasionally hire external experts for asset quality reviews.
  • Technology & InfrastructureConsulting & Advisory delivers Technology & Infrastructure projects — core banking, cloud migration and AI — side by side with the vendors.

Careers in this zone · 7

Management / strategy consultant (financial services practice)

Takes apart a business problem of a bank, insurer or fund: why profitability is falling, which markets to open, how to rebuild the sales network. Gathers data, builds the analysis, formulates recommendations and presents them to management, and often helps implement them too.

What you need to know

  • The economics of financial institutions: margin, cost of risk, capital
  • Financial analysis and unit economics
  • The sector's regulatory environment
  • Strategy frameworks

Skills

  • Structured thinking (hypotheses, MECE)
  • Excel and PowerPoint
  • Client interviewing
  • Getting up to speed in a new industry fast

Certifications: Usually not required — an MBA, a strong degree and case interviews count; CFA is a plus in a financial services practice

Risk and regulatory consultant

Helps banks and insurers meet new requirements: builds or independently validates credit risk models, sets up stress tests, prepares for a supervisory inspection, implements AML processes or digital resilience rules (🇪🇺 DORA).

What you need to know

  • Basel III, IFRS 9
  • PD / LGD / EAD models and their validation
  • Solvency II — for insurers
  • AML and sanctions requirements
  • DORA and outsourcing requirements

Skills

  • Python / SAS / SQL
  • Turning regulatory text into a process
  • Model documentation
  • Dealing with the regulator

Certifications: FRM, PRM; CFA; CAMS for AML projects

Transaction services analyst (financial due diligence)

Before a company is bought, checks its finances for the buyer or the lending bank: is the profit real (quality of earnings), what debts are hidden, how much cash the business swallows in working capital. The conclusions feed straight into the price and terms of the deal.

What you need to know

  • IFRS / US GAAP and normalising EBITDA
  • Working capital and net debt
  • Price mechanisms in a purchase agreement (locked box, completion accounts)
  • Tax risks in transactions

Skills

  • Data analysis in Excel
  • Working in a virtual data room
  • Concise reports against a deal deadline
  • Questioning the seller's management

Certifications: ACCA, CPA, ACA — the usual route out of audit; CFA is a plus

Business valuation specialist

Determines what a company, a stake or an asset is worth — for a deal, for reporting (purchase price allocation, impairment testing), for court or tax purposes. Defends the valuation in front of an auditor, a buyer or a judge.

What you need to know

  • DCF, multiples, the discount rate
  • Valuation of intangible assets
  • IFRS 13 — fair value
  • Industry economics

Skills

  • Financial modelling
  • Working with market databases
  • A reasoned written report
  • Criticising your own assumptions

Certifications: CFA; ASA or CVA (🇺🇸); RICS Registered Valuer for real estate

M&A adviser (corporate finance advisory)

Runs a deal on the sell side or the buy side: prepares the information memorandum, finds and screens counterparties, organises the auction, negotiates price and terms up to signing. Unlike an investment bank, does not place securities and does not lend — only advises.

What you need to know

  • Corporate finance and valuation
  • The stages of an M&A process
  • Basics of corporate law and merger control
  • Sources of deal financing

Skills

  • Negotiation
  • Financial models and presentations
  • Running a process with dozens of participants
  • Business English

Certifications: CFA; for work with securities — regulatory licences (🇬🇧 FCA, 🇺🇸 FINRA)

Restructuring adviser

Works with a company that can no longer service its debts: counts how many weeks the cash will last, prepares a rescue plan, negotiates with banks and bondholders and, if needed, runs the insolvency. Sometimes steps in as interim chief restructuring officer.

What you need to know

  • The 13-week cash flow forecast
  • Debt instruments and creditor seniority
  • Insolvency law (🇺🇸 Chapter 11, 🇪🇺 preventive restructuring frameworks under Directive 2019/1023)
  • Valuing a business in distress

Skills

  • Deciding with too little time and information
  • Negotiating with creditors
  • Resilience under pressure
  • Talking to management in a crisis

Certifications: CTP (Turnaround Management Association) and CIRA (🇺🇸) are useful; acting as a court-appointed insolvency practitioner requires a national licence

Digital transformation consultant for financial institutions

Helps a bank or insurer replace legacy systems, move to the cloud, launch a digital product or introduce AI. Translates business needs into IT requirements, selects vendors and runs the change programme — a failed migration of this kind can paralyse a bank (the TSB case in Technology & Infrastructure).

What you need to know

  • The architecture of banking systems (core banking, payments)
  • Cloud models and regulatory outsourcing requirements
  • Change programme management, agile
  • Data and AI in finance

Skills

  • Project management
  • Business analysis
  • Bridging IT and the business
  • Vendor management

Certifications: PMP or PRINCE2; cloud certifications (AWS, Azure) depending on the profile

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