BANKING AND FINANCE INDUSTRY

The financial services industry comprises several key subsegments. These include, but are not limited to- mutual funds, pension funds, insurance companies, stock-brokers, wealth managers, financial advisory companies, and commercial banks- ranging from small domestic players to large multinational companies.

Banking

The financial services offered in this segment include:

• Individual Banking (checking accounts, savings accounts, debit/credit cards, etc.)
• Business Banking (merchant services, checking accounts and savings accounts for businesses, treasury services, etc.)
• Loans (business loans, personal loans, home loans, automobile loans, working-capital loans, etc.)

The banking sector is regulated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which monitors and maintains the segment’s liquidity, capitalization, and financial health.

Financial Advisory/ Financial Consulting

The Financial Advisory (or financial consulting) segment delivers consulting services that build on a strong financial-analytical fundamental.

The market for financial advisory consists of eight main disciplines: Transaction Services, Corporate Finance, Crisis & Recovery, Risk Management, Accounting Advisory, Tax Advisory, Real Estate Advisory and Forensics & Litigation.

Transaction services provide clients with a range of services related to the acquisition, merger or divestiture of an organisation. Services range from setting an M&A strategy, screening targets, valuations and due diligence in the pre-deal process to post-merger integration support and other operational transaction services after a deal has been unveiled.

Corporate finance is the area of consulting that deals with funding and capital structure matters. Key propositions include financing (including alternative investments) restructuring, working capital management (also closely tied to the finance consulting segment within operations consulting), IPO’s and capital markets.

When companies find themselves in financial difficulties, they commonly turn to crisis & recovery advisors. Experts help them with getting a grip on the crisis situation (short term) and subsequently ensuring a turnaround plan is in place for the longer term. Key services include insolvency (or bankruptcy) management (consultants are often called in as administrators), restructuring, turnaround advisory and debt management.

Capital Restructuring

These services are offered primarily to organizations and involve the restructuring of capital structure (debt and equity) to bolster profitability or respond to crises such as bankruptcy, volatile markets, liquidity crunch or hostile takeovers. The types of financial solutions in this segment typically include structured transactions, lender negotiations, accelerated M&A and capital raising. 

Risk management consultants help organisations with ensuring that uncertainty in the enterprise and market does not impact (or minimally impacts) business goals. Main offerings are, among others, risk management (analyzing risks and ensuring a process and governance is in place to mitigate risks), risk control (setting up the right warning systems that can detect risks), internal audit (assessments aimed at mapping risk profiles and compliance) and IT risk; which covers the growing risks in the information technology arena such as cybersecurity, digital governance and enterprise data management.

In the auditing segment, service providers offer solutions including statutory audits, internal audits, service tax audits, tax audits, process/transaction audits, risk audits, stock audits, etc. These services are essential to ensure the smooth operation of business entities from a qualitative and quantitative perspective, as well as to mitigate risk.

The tax advisory segment centres around helping enterprises adhere with tax law, which includes propositions such as corporate tax strategy, location advisory, transfer pricing and tax aligned supply chains.

They include:

• Tax – Individual (determining tax liability, filing tax-returns, tax-savings advisory, etc.)
• Tax – Business (determining tax liability, transfer pricing analysis and structuring, GST registrations, tax compliance advisory, etc.)

Accounting advisory focuses on supporting clients with optimising the accounting and financial reporting challenges facing their businesses and the finance function. Projects typically entail boosting the efficiency of the accounting function, improving financial reporting quality and flows, and ensuring compliance to regulatory requirements at all levels, from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to local legislation.

The real estate advisory segment supports clients with financial matters in the area of real estate and property management. Key offerings include location advisory, real estate valuations, transaction support on property deals and optimising real estate asset portfolios (often in combination with financial asset management). Clients typically span four stakeholders types: governments and local municipalities (i.e. area development), housing corporations (i.e. strategic supply management, risk management), companies (portfolio management, location support) and real estate investors (i.e. due diligence, portfolio analyses).

The forensics & litigation segment supports clients with a range of services that follow from actual or anticipated disputes or litigation cases. Propositions include dispute advisory, forensic accounting services (which combines accounting, auditing and investigative skills), litigation support and electronic discovery (or e-discovery). Work can range across industries and topics – a forensic consultant (also known as an auditor or investigative auditor) can deliver economic damage calculations for governments, antitrust bodies or companies, support tax fraud and money-laundering investigations, or even look into digital crimes such as cyber-attacks or data theft. 

Insurance 

Financial services offerings in this segment are primarily offered across two categories:

• General Insurance (automotive, home, medical, fire, travel, etc.)
• Life Insurance (term-life, money-back, unit-linked, pension plans, etc.)

Insurance solutions enable individuals and organizations to safeguard against unforeseen circumstances and accidents. Payouts for these products vary across the nature of the product, time horizons, customer risk assessment, premiums, and several other key qualitative and quantitative aspects.

Wealth Management 

Financial services offered within this segment include managing and investing customers’ wealth across various financial instruments- including debt, equity, mutual funds, insurance products, derivatives, structured products, commodities, and real estate, based on the clients’ financial goals, risk profile and time horizons. 

Mutual Funds

Mutual fund service providers offer professional investment services across funds that are composed of different asset classes, primarily debt and equity-linked assets. The buy-in for mutual fund solutions is generally lower compared to the stock market and debt products. These products are very popular as they generally have lower risks, tax benefits, stable returns and properties of diversification.

Stock Market

The stock market segment includes investment solutions for customers in various stock markets across various equity-linked products. The returns for customers are based on capital appreciation – growth in the value of the equity solution and/or dividends – and payouts made by companies to its investors. 

Treasury/Debt Instruments 

Services offered in this segment include investments into government and private organization bonds (debt). The issuer of the bonds (borrower) offers fixed payments (interest) and principal repayment to the investor at the end of the investment period. The types of instruments in this segment include listed bonds, non-convertible debentures, capital-gain bonds, GoI savings bonds, tax-free bonds, etc.

Portfolio Management

This segment includes a highly specialized and customized range of solutions that enables clients to reach their financial goals through portfolio managers who analyze and optimize investments for clients across a wide range of assets (debt, equity, insurance, real estate, etc.).