The competition landscape in investment banking is tougher than ever before.
In the wake of reduced capital markets activity post-pandemic, firms of all sizes found themselves going head-to-head on mandates and RFPs, with bulge brackets facing competition from boutiques and even financial advisory firms.
However, with M&A activity predicted to rise 10% in the year ahead, investment banks are turning to technology to meet the surge in deal volumes and gain the upper hand.
We recently sat down with Alex Boyce, Head of Capital Solutions at Stifel, and Janik Bold, MD and COO at Leverest, to discuss strategies that investment banks can leverage to gain a competitive edge in 2025.
Three Ways Adopting Software is Giving Banks a Competitive Advantage in 2025
1. Adapting to a Virtual Pitch Culture
Post-pandemic dealmaking has seen online and hybrid meetings become the global norm.
Investment banks now have an opportunity to distinguish themselves by the quality of their virtual pitches, whether through the real-time accuracy of the data or the interactive quality of the pitch itself.
Leverest’s Janik Bold highlights social media as a growing influence on pitch culture, where reducing attention spans have left deal teams pressed to concentrate greater volumes of information in shorter and shorter formats.
Likewise, Alex Boyce frames the challenge for pitch teams as “hav[ing] something that’s short, sharp – where you can glean data from it in ten seconds – and then keep a face-to-face dialogue and eye contact in the meeting.”
Quality of design has become more important to as the move to digital has made precision formatting more noticeable on high-resolution displays.
While junior bankers no longer face the worry of taking a pitchbook to print, the pressure to have perfect alignment, on-brand colors, and a compelling design interface has never been greater.
For deal teams, digital versatility and premium design are now synonymous with client-centricity.
Failing to meet these needs – even in the teaser pitch or the initial RFP response – can lead to lost client engagement and damage your standing in a deal, potentially threatening long-term brand prestige.
Discover our best practice guide to pitchbook creation
2. Developing a Successful Cross-Selling Strategy
Whether it’s UniCredit’s bids for Commerzbank and Banco BPM, or Mizuho folding in Greenhill to form their M&A and Restructuring arm, acquiring established firms has become a popular strategy to achieve cross-sector dominance within investment banking.
But M&A between investment banks raises the new issue of brand cohesion between the two entities.
The real question, Boyce puts it, is “are [all pieces of the bank] talking to each other in a way that’s enhancing value for the client?”
He recommends establishing a committee dedicated to cross-selling, so that all arms of the bank stay aligned. Strategies can range from implementing a company-wide editorial charter to bridge the gaps between new subsidiaries, to standardizing new document templates across all branches of the firm.
Banks should rely on technology to help ease the transition “rather than having a poor analyst spending all night changing the shade of green that they use from one deck to the other” – still a familiar experience for many bankers today.
Discover our complete guide to brand compliance
3. Maximizing Value for FTEs
Despite a predicted surge in market activity this year, many investment banks are still pushing for lower-headcount structures within their teams.
Nearly half the audience of our recent webinar flagged that their team size has become slimmer within the last 2-3 years.
This raises the question, how can banks maximize value-generation from existing FTEs without falling behind?
Alex Boyce poses tech as the solution to ensure his juniors remain top priority.
By “empowering and upskilling” his juniors with technology, they can deliver a more qualitative output at a faster pace.
Equally, a lack of tech investment can drive juniors away. As Janik Bold puts it, “people are using [AI] already in their private lives, so you can’t tell them that they should come into work and not use those great tools anymore.”
A cutting-edge tech stack can be the difference between keeping or losing the best bankers.
In this light, the easiest steps an investment bank can take to hold onto top dealmakers is ensuring they’ve the right tools to help them close more deals more efficiently.
Conclusion: How Can Banks Remain Competitive in The Long-Term?
From the boardroom to the front office, investment banks are relying on tech to solve core problems across every arm of the business.
Whether it’s enhancing the quality of a pitch itself, driving talent acquisition and retention, or improving cross-product sales, technology is now table stakes across the investment banking industry.
But for a sector often resistant to cultural change, how can teams communicate these benefits firmwide to future-proof their competitive standpoint?
As Boyce puts it, while it’s hard to be the first-mover, “banks get FOMO just like everyone else.” Sometimes it’s as simple as looking at the competition and seeing that the benchmark has changed.
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