Case Studies
Our partners have spent their careers building, transforming, running, and growing banking businesses. The examples below provide a selection of work they have led or been directly responsible for during their banking and advisory careers. Client and institution names have been omitted where confidentiality requires it.
Developing APAC Escrow Business
The Opportunity
Following the merger of Bank of America and Merrill Lynch, Tony identified an opportunity to build an Escrow business across Asia Pacific, leveraging Merrill Lynch's M&A franchise to originate new Transaction Banking opportunities.
The Approach
Tony led the development and commercialisation of the Escrow capability across the region, bringing together Transaction Banking, M&A Advisory, Legal, Risk and Operations. The model embedded Escrow into relevant M&A transactions and created a new source of Transaction Banking revenue.
The Result
The business secured multiple Escrow mandates across Asia Pacific. A standout was a major cross-border transaction between Japan and Indonesia, where the Escrow revenue ultimately exceeded the M&A advisory fees generated by the transaction.
Ascend Insight
Connecting capabilities across a bank can create new client propositions and meaningful incremental revenue. The opportunity is often strongest when Transaction Banking is positioned early alongside advisory and other parts of the institutional franchise.
Building API-Enabled Virtual Account Platform
The Opportunity
ANZ saw an opportunity to strengthen its receivables and account solutions through a new API-enabled Virtual Account capability, particularly for clients with complex payment, reconciliation and account management requirements.
The Approach
Tony led the development of the solution in partnership with a specialist third-party technology provider. The platform combined Virtual Accounts with API connectivity to improve payment identification, reconciliation and account management, with a focus on Wealth Management, Government, Stockbroking and multinational clients.
The Result
The capability created a new client proposition for ANZ and expanded the bank's ability to compete for complex Cash Management and receivables mandates across priority institutional client segments.
Ascend Insight
Banks do not always need to build new technology internally. The right external partnership, combined with strong product design and commercialisation, can accelerate time to market and create new Transaction Banking revenue opportunities.
Launching New Payments Capability
The Opportunity
As part of ANZ's development of its New Payments Platform (NPP) capability, Tony worked with colleagues across the bank to identify and develop opportunities for the Institutional business, including extending NPP access to international financial institutions.
The Approach
Working as part of a cross-bank team, Tony contributed his Transaction Banking and product expertise to the development and commercialisation of the Institutional NPP proposition. A specific focus was creating a solution that could enable international banks to access Australia's real-time payment infrastructure through ANZ.
The Result
The initiative strengthened ANZ's Institutional payments proposition and created the capability to connect international financial institutions to the NPP rails, opening new opportunities across correspondent banking and cross-border payments.
Ascend Insight
Successfully commercialising new payment infrastructure requires more than technology. It requires collaboration across Product, Technology, Operations and the client franchise to turn infrastructure investment into solutions clients can use.
Driving Sales Planning & Revenue Execution
The Opportunity
A Transaction Banking business can have strong products and established client relationships but still underperform if sales activity is not focused on the clients and opportunities with the greatest revenue potential. The requirement is to translate strategy into a disciplined client plan with clear priorities, ownership and measurable outcomes.
The Approach
Tony developed and implemented sales planning frameworks that started with the client portfolio, identified priority clients and product gaps, sized the addressable wallet and set clear revenue targets. The process linked Relationship Managers and Transaction Banking specialists through prioritised calling plans, defined next actions, pipeline governance and regular management review. Opportunities were tracked from identification through conversion and revenue realisation.
The Result
The approach created greater visibility over where growth was expected to come from, improved focus on the highest-value opportunities and strengthened accountability for execution. It also gave management a clearer view of pipeline quality, conversion and expected revenue rather than relying primarily on activity measures.
Ascend Insight
Sales planning is most effective when it is tied directly to revenue. Prioritise the right clients, size the opportunity, agree ownership, maintain a disciplined calling programme and measure conversion through to realised revenue.
Implementing Market Growth Strategy
The Opportunity
At Standard Chartered Bank, Victor identified an opportunity to strengthen the bank’s cash management business in London by capturing a range of niche but sizeable deposit opportunities targeting specific client segments and opportunities.
The Approach
Victor worked with the Non-Bank Financial Institutions team to develop a strategy and calling program targeting client monies at major asset managers. He also worked with the central Escrow Product Team and offshore corporate sales teams to capture and structure large project and M&A-related escrow deposits from major resources and oil and gas clients operating in offshore locations. The strategy leveraged the bank’s strong credit rating, institutional track record in these sectors, and the perceived safety of the UK legal system.
The Result
The Bank was able to quadruple its deposit base in London to over USD40bn whilst earning good spreads, resulting in a significant increase in revenue cross-sell and greater self-funding of the central loan book. The success of this strategy led to further investments in domestic cash management capabilities in the UK and Europe as well as advanced Escrow solutions, repositioning the UK & Europe business as one of the most vibrant and fastest growing in the global Standard Chartered network.
Ascend Insight
Sometimes simple but well executed growth strategies can drive sizeable growth without the need for big investments in new products and technology. The right sales focus, combined with strong product support and solutioning, can accelerate revenues and build the case for further investment, creating a self-reinforcing growth model.
Accelerating Digital Innovation & Solutions
The Opportunity
As e-commerce, fintech and crypto activity accelerated in the market, Standard Chartered Bank wanted to reposition its business to capture this growth opportunity. Victor was appointed to lead a new Digital Solutions team, with team members located in key hubs around the world to support the new line of business.
The Approach
Victor worked with members of the new Digital Solutions team, FI coverage, and TB Sales in each region together with specialised Compliance officers and Technology partners to quickly identify the key segments, players, markets and types of solutions that could be supported. The team then targeted key emerging players in the industry to capture business and structure the bespoke solutions required to win this business.
The Result
The Bank was able to rapidly scale this new business, building a pipeline of over 120 deals within 18 months and capturing groundbreaking business as a major provider of wallet on-ramp and off-ramp services, cross-currency payment solutions to fintechs, omnibus accounts for platforms, API and app-based solutions, and ‘on-the-fly’ FX conversion solutions.
Ascend Insight
Capturing a newly emerging sector of the market and developing cutting edge solutions is as much about understanding a bank’s risk appetite and working with Compliance to get comfortable with deal structures and solutions as it is about planning, teamwork, and sales discipline. In this case, leveraging technology and enhancing products to meet the needs of technically advanced clients was also a key ingredient of success.
Growing Underdeveloped Client Segment
The Opportunity
As JP Morgan developed its cash management business in Asia Pacific, the Bank saw an opportunity to grow its small Non-Bank FI (NBFI) business more aggressively. Victor was tasked with leading this effort as the newly appointed Head of NBFI Sales.
The Approach
Victor brought the Coverage Bankers, NBFI Sales, and Corporate Sales teams covering the NBFI sector across Asia together in one virtual sales team. He worked with the team to evaluate the current landscape and opportunities whilst also reaching out to head office teams in the US and Europe to understand which relationships could be leveraged into Asia. A region-wide sales strategy and plan was then developed to initially target the Insurance sector, including global Insurance names operating in Asia as well as large local players in the region.
The Result
The bank rapidly scaled sales in the Insurance sector, building a $100 million revenue pipeline in under 12 months, and then capturing major mandates across the region. This included the APAC-wide business of a major global insurance broker, bespoke liquidity solutions for the regional reinsurance hubs of major global insurers, and domestic cash management mandates with major local insurance companies. The effort then expanded into the asset manager segment.
Ascend Insight
Scaling business in an underdeveloped market sector requires teamwork, planning, capabilities, and focus. Bringing together the right teams across functions, agreeing the scope of services, identifying target clients, and then executing in a disciplined way are all key ingredients for success.
Building New Supply Chain Finance Product
The Opportunity
Citibank Australia was keen to diversify its Trade business from pure documentary Trade into supply chain finance, mirroring its success in the US market. However, it did not have a system it could use for the local market. Victor, who was leading a business process outsourcing venture for Citibank at the time, was engaged to solve the problem.
The Approach
After evaluating various options, it was decided to focus on Payable Finance (aka Reverse Factoring) as the launch product as this could leverage the Bank’s existing pool of ‘PayLink’ cheque outsourcing clients with this new companion product. A high-level technical design was developed utilising the existing file protocols already deployed for PayLink, enabling supplier payments for the new service to be sent in the same format as the existing service to the Bank. A business plan then sought funding for development of a prototype which was approved.
The Result
A prototype was quickly developed after detailed design work and deployed to market within six months. Demand was strong, which led the region to adopt the product, industrialise the platform and commercialise the product region-wide. Today, this is one of Citibank’s biggest Trade products in the region.
Ascend Insight
Big things can grow from small ideas and experiments. You don’t always need to spend millions on a platform. Creating a prototype to test the market is a great way to minimise risk and maximise returns.
Transforming Global TB Business
The Opportunity
Mashreq is a major Middle East bank based in the UAE. It has historically been viewed as an innovator, being the first bank in the region to introduce credit cards, ATMs and internet banking. Unfortunately, its Transaction Banking business had fallen behind its competitors and needed a complete overhaul. Victor was hired as the new Global Transaction Banking Head to lead an end-to-end transformation of the business across the UAE and 10 other markets, with a goal of doubling the size of the business within three to five years.
The Approach
Victor worked with his technology Co-Head and the management team to develop a detailed business strategy and execution plan across all dimensions of the business including target sectors, products, platforms, process, organisation structure, and culture. This included the replacement of all the core product engines covering Payments, Collections, Liquidity Management, Virtual Accounts, Documentary Trade, and Open Account Trade, plus a new web channel, mobile app and API Gateway. This combined investment would support the development of a new suite of highly advanced digital products, services, and industry solutions. At the same time sales plans and targets were developed to capture ‘low hanging fruit’ from existing clients and products whilst the new platforms were being built. A niche strategy to grow the correspondent FI Trade and Clearing business leveraging Mashreq’s unique position as the only USD clearer in the region was also developed.
The Result
The revenues of the Transaction Bank more than tripled in under 4 years, despite the new platforms not coming online until the latter period of the plan. Liabilities quadrupled through focused targeting of deposit and liquidity solutions resulting in full funding of the corporate loan book. At the same time the FI Trade and Clearing business grew seven-fold, becoming a major engine of growth for the Institutional Bank and positioning Mashreq as a serious competitor to the major US banks in the Middle East and surrounding regions.
Ascend Insight
Sometimes a mature business needs a fresh start. This may involve a focused strategy to capture more business from existing markets, but in some circumstances a more extensive root-and-branch transformation of the business model is needed to position it for future growth.