Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Banking Consultant

🎯 Role Definition

A Banking Consultant acts as a trusted advisor to banks, credit unions and financial institutions to design, implement and optimize banking products, processes and technology. The role blends commercial acumen, regulatory expertise and project delivery: advising on credit underwriting and portfolio management, AML/KYC and regulatory remediation, digital and core-banking transformations, payments and treasury solutions, and go-to-market strategies. The consultant manages client relationships, prepares board- and C-suite-ready deliverables, leads cross-functional delivery teams, and supports business development activities to grow consulting revenue.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Business Analyst (Banking/Financial Services)
Credit Analyst / Underwriter
Relationship Manager (Retail or Commercial Banking)

Advancement To:

Senior Banking Consultant / Engagement Manager
Director, Banking Advisory / Head of Consulting
Vice President / Head of Transformation (Banking)

Lateral Moves:

Product Manager (Payments, Lending, Deposits)
Risk & Compliance Manager
Digital Banking Product Owner

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Conduct in-depth financial analysis, credit risk assessment and portfolio reviews to identify concentration risk, credit deterioration, provisioning impacts and opportunities for portfolio optimization; prepare actionable remediation plans and present findings to senior client stakeholders.
Lead end-to-end credit underwriting and loan origination process redesigns, including policy updates, workflow reconfiguration, decisioning rules, and automation opportunities to improve turnaround times and reduce loss rates.
Design and implement regulatory compliance programs (AML, KYC, CDD, sanctions screening) including gap analysis against local and global regulatory expectations, remediation roadmaps, policy drafting and training for frontline staff.
Advise clients on Basel III/IV, IFRS 9/ECL, CCAR and local capital adequacy/regulatory reporting requirements; translate regulatory obligations into practical governance, metrics and control frameworks.
Drive digital banking strategy and channel transformation initiatives — from internet and mobile banking to digital onboarding, e-KYC and omni-channel service design — delivering measurable adoption and cost-to-serve improvements.
Manage and execute core banking system selection, vendor evaluation (e.g., Temenos, Oracle FLEXCUBE, FIS), implementation planning, testing strategy (UAT), and cutover support to mitigate operational risk.
Define product strategy and go-to-market plans for deposits, lending, cards, treasury products and payments; support pricing, profitability analysis and cross-sell campaigns with targeted segmentation and CRM integration.
Build financial models, business cases and ROI analyses to quantify benefits of transformation programs, automation, and new product launches; present recommendations to executive sponsors and investment committees.
Lead multi-disciplinary project teams through program governance, resource planning, sprint planning and risk/issue management, ensuring delivery against scope, timeline and budget.
Conduct market research, competitor benchmarking and regulatory horizon scanning to identify market entry, partnership or product innovation opportunities for clients.
Prepare and deliver persuasive client-facing deliverables: proposals, RFP responses, commercial bids, board presentations and executive summaries that drive decision-making and new engagements.
Support payments and treasury modernization projects including faster payments, merchant acquiring, SWIFT connectivity, cash management optimization and corporate treasury advisory.
Lead vendor and third-party risk assessments, contract negotiations and post-contract performance monitoring for technology, cloud and BPO providers.
Design and implement operational risk frameworks, incident management processes, business continuity planning and control self-assessment programs to strengthen the control environment.
Execute process improvement initiatives using Lean, Six Sigma or BPM techniques to streamline front-to-back processes, reduce processing errors and lower operating costs.
Implement advanced analytics and reporting capabilities (Power BI/Tableau/SQL/Python) to provide real-time dashboards, stress testing inputs, and early warning indicators for credit and operational risk.
Conduct due diligence for mergers, acquisitions, carve-outs or branch integrations including customer and product rationalization, systems mapping and integration planning.
Coach and upskill client teams and internal consultants through workshops, train-the-trainer sessions and change management plans to ensure sustainable adoption of new processes and tools.
Support sales and business development: qualify leads, create compelling value propositions, manage opportunity pipelines and meet revenue and utilization targets for the consulting practice.
Oversee post-implementation support and continuous improvement, tracking benefits realization, operational metrics and performing periodic health-checks to ensure sustained value delivery.
Coordinate with legal, compliance and finance stakeholders to ensure new products and system changes are compliant with consumer protection, data privacy (GDPR/PDPA) and contract obligations.
Prepare and maintain comprehensive documentation: requirements specifications, system configuration guides, test scripts, runbooks and standard operating procedures to enable knowledge transfer and auditability.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Mentor junior consultants and participate in recruitment, proposal writing and thought leadership content (whitepapers, case studies).
Participate in industry events, client workshops and account planning to deepen sector expertise and strengthen client relationships.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Credit analysis and underwriting (retail, SME, commercial lending) — financial statement analysis, covenants and LTV/DSCR calculations.
Regulatory knowledge: AML/KYC, Basel III/IV, IFRS 9/ECL, CCAR, Dodd-Frank, PSD2 and consumer protection rules.
Core banking systems and fintech platforms (e.g., Temenos, Oracle FLEXCUBE, FIS, Fiserv, Jack Henry) — selection and implementation experience.
Payments and treasury systems expertise: SWIFT, SEPA, ACH, RTP/faster payments and merchant acquiring flows.
Financial modelling, valuation and ROI/business case development — advanced Excel skills and scenario analysis.
Data analytics and visualization: SQL, Power BI, Tableau; familiarity with Python/R for analytic prototypes an advantage.
Project and program management: Agile/Scrum, Prince2, PMP or equivalent experience running multi-workstream programs.
CRM and sales enablement platforms: Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics experience for relationship and pipeline management.
Risk and control frameworks: operational risk, incident management, control testing and remediation tracking systems.
Cloud and SaaS implementation knowledge — cloud migration risks, vendor management and security considerations.
Automation and process improvement: RPA tools familiarity (UiPath, Automation Anywhere) and Lean/Six Sigma methodologies.
Documentation and testing: requirements specification, test plan creation, UAT coordination and cutover runbooks.

Soft Skills

Strong client-facing presence with ability to manage C-suite and board-level interactions.
Exceptional written and verbal communication — able to create crisp executive summaries and persuasive proposals.
Strategic thinking with a commercial mindset — balance technical depth with revenue and profitability focus.
Stakeholder management and influencing across matrixed organizations.
Problem-solving and structured thinking — ability to decompose complex banking problems into pragmatic solutions.
Coaching and team leadership — mentoring junior consultants and fostering collaborative teams.
Adaptability and resilience in fast-paced, regulatory-driven environments.
Attention to detail and high standards for governance and compliance.
Negotiation skills for vendor contracts, commercial terms and client agreements.
Time management and prioritization across multiple concurrent client engagements.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration, Accounting, Information Systems or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree (MBA, MSc Finance) or relevant professional qualification (CFA, FRM, CPA) preferred.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Finance / Financial Services
Economics
Business Administration / Management
Accounting
Information Systems / Computer Science (for digital/core banking roles)
Risk Management / Compliance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3–10 years of experience in banking, financial services consulting, or Big Four advisory with demonstrable delivery on banking transformation, credit/risk projects, or regulatory programs.

Preferred:

5+ years in a client-facing banking consulting role or in-house banking transformation role with exposure to commercial and retail banking products, regulatory remediation, digital channel delivery and proven track record of leading end-to-end implementations and business development.