Another potential area for success in 2014 is analytics. Improved reporting and finance infrastructure that allows for diligent cost management will become more important than ever, as disciplined expense controls can enable banks to make many needed investments.
Stress testing, Basel III, and capital planning requirements may drive two priorities for CFOs: growing the capital base with a particular focus on tangible common equity and building a new finance infrastructure that can provide accurate and reliable data for capital decisions. Banks looking to create advantages in 2014 may consider integrating capital efficiency tools at the business level. Realtime capital allocation tools and advanced scenario planning at the transaction level may enable more informed risk-and-return decisions.