What's in store for Europe?

Leaders of Europe’s consumer finance industry expect growth in the coming years—but also shrinking financial margins. Achieving success in today's highly regulated environment still requires mastering traditional key success factors, such as exceptional face to face selling, risk control, and sophisticated pricing.

At the same time, consumer finance leaders must understand the trends that are challenging traditional models and changing how people buy, including social networks, the sharing economy and big data to P2P, omnichannel customer behaviour, and demotorization, among many more. Online banking, internet players, and market consolidation will also bring about major changes to traditional ways of working.

In collaboration with Eurofinas, Roland Berger conducted a major European survey on the future of European consumer finance. We have engaged leading executives from 118 companies in 21 European countries, spanning a host of business models, from bank subsidiaries to niche players. They shared their views and insights on market outlook, trends, challenges, opportunities, and likely success factors.

Challenges to the markets

This survey lays out our findings. We have identified key areas of growth and profit margins, likely changes to market structure and competition, business models expected to perform best, and the level of threat expected from different competitors. We have summarized major trends and challenges to the market, such as digitization and big data, and explore those likely to change the industry the most. Key socio-economic factors are identified and broken down by region. We analyse consumers’ transformation journeys and pin-point key findings, distribution models, and the role and nature of online contact as well as highlighting areas for improvement.

Despite the squeezing of margins, the market remains one of exciting opportunity. This survey provides a guide to areas that can strategically transform business—from building new data skills and re-inventing partnership models, to rethinking end-customer journeys—to remain ahead of market trends.