Financial Services Strategy
Areas of Expertise

Financial sector strategy
Genesis offers a wealth of experience in providing strategy support to financial services players, with two decades of experience and over 600 successfully completed projects in Africa and the Middle East.
Our clients are diverse. We assist governments and government agencies in developing long-term strategies aimed at economic development and advise donors in developing their initiatives to better reach their targeted segments.

Digital financial services
At Genesis we provide digital strategy support and advice to our clients looking to embark on a transformation journey, enter new markets with a digital proposition, or optimise their existing strategy through better use of digital analytics.
We have a broad understanding of fintech innovation and keep abreast of developments across the financial service core competencies. These include payments, lending, deposit taking, investments, and wealth management and capital markets.
We have advised a number of financial institutions on their digital transformation journeys and have contributed to how policymakers can support and enable innovation that promotes improved access to finance while protecting consumers and ensuring the stability of the financial services sector.

Market analysis and positioning
Genesis has built diverse expertise in conducting market-sizing and positioning exercises across Africa and the Middle East, working with a variety of financial services, including credit providers, large financial institutions and donor organisations.
We have helped multinational credit providers in Africa to understand the size of the markets for their products by breaking down the addressable market into target segments. In addition, we have assisted large financial institutions, including pan-African commercial banks, in sizing the retail, business banking, and corporate and investment banking revenue pools in their markets.

Applied behavioural economics
Behavioural economics is a powerful field that combines economics and psychology to influence behaviour and improve decision-making for the better through low-cost, high-impact, easy-to-implement interventions. Genesis Analytics created the first team of consultants in Africa in 2014 to use a scientific understanding of human behaviour to solve practical problems in the world of business.

Financial risk management
Risk management is a topic that has taken on greater importance in light of the increased complexity surrounding financial markets and the banking sector. As a result, establishing appropriate risk-management processes to identify, understand and manage risk are a priority for financial institutions.
Genesis offers highly experienced risk-management professionals, who have decades of experience of working in and consulting to the financial sector. We offer our risk-management advisory services to financial institutions, including commercial banks, central banks, development finance institutions, stock exchanges and non-bank financial institutions, covering an array of risk categories.

Financial market policy
At Genesis, we have built considerable expertise in the financial services policy space, spanning a variety of facets, including economic developments, fintech, banking and capital markets.
Our work with donors and public sector players has involved supporting policy interventions to further their goals across Africa.

Financial inclusion
Financial inclusion remains an acute challenge across Africa, with many people in the sub-Saharan region lacking access to basic financial products and services, such as credit, savings and insurance products. The effects of financial exclusion fall disproportionately on particularly women, low-income groups, rural inhabitants and small businesses. These groups have traditionally been underserved by traditional financial services. Genesis has built deep expertise in driving financial inclusion across these groups in Africa.

Payments
Genesis has deep experience in the payments space, with expertise spanning Africa and the Middle East. Given the importance of payments in allowing individuals, businesses and governments to transact quickly and affordably, our work has implications for both public and private sector strategies, payment regulation and oversight, as well as financial inclusion - all areas in which we consult widely.

Strategic due diligence
Genesis has built substantial experience in conducting due diligence research to underpin and advise in a number of transactions across the financial services space, across geographies spanning Africa and the Middle East.
The acquisitions that we have consulted on vary considerably. We have advised donor organisations and global private equity firms as they have sought to acquire new and innovative players in the payments space, credit-rating agencies and even on social projects, such as those targeting housing and urban development. In addition, we have aided large commercial banks evaluate the appropriateness of acquiring operations such as additional retail banking offerings, while also advising governments that are restructuring and privatising state-owned banks by assessing their financial and managerial capabilities.