Banking Research & Consulting

Saturday, 18 July 2026

Consulting

The most consequential decisions in financial services where to expand, how to compete, which technology bets to make, how to position against a shifting competitive landscape are rarely answered well by generic market research. They require judgement: an informed point of view on what the evidence means, what the competition is likely to do, and what a specific institution should do given its own starting position.

TABInsights provides that judgement through a team of international resource directors and senior advisors who have held executive roles inside the industry, working alongside our senior research analysts to combine independent analytical rigour with the practical experience of people who have faced these decisions themselves.

We work with financial institutions, technology companies, and investors as a strategic advisory partner bringing an institutional perspective on the banking industry that is built on more than 25 years of primary research, direct relationships with senior executives across the region, and proprietary data on the financial performance of more than 1,000 banks globally.

For banks and financial institutions, that means advisory support on competitive strategy, market positioning, performance improvement, and strategic planning informed by independent benchmarking against a precisely defined peer group and a clear-eyed assessment of where the institution stands relative to best-in-class.

For technology companies, it means strategic orientation on a market that operates according to institutional and regulatory logic that is not visible from the outside who is investing, in what, and why translated into a clear view on where to focus, how to position, and what the path to adoption actually looks like.

For investors and boards, it means a credible, independent perspective on financial services markets, competitive dynamics, and institutional performance that goes beyond what management presents and what analysts publish.

In each case, we bring a view. We do not present options and leave the interpretation to the client. We tell you what we think the evidence means and what we believe you should do about it.

If the decision you are facing requires more than a report, if it requires a partner who will take a position and tell you what they think you should do, contact us at maquino@tab.global.

Who we work with

Our clients come to us at moments of strategic consequence when the decision at hand is too important to be answered by a standard research report and requires a partner who will take a position.

Banks and financial institutions

Banks and financial institutions engage us when they are facing a strategic inflection: entering a new market, repositioning against a shifting competitive landscape, preparing a board-level strategy review, or navigating a transformation that requires an external perspective unclouded by internal assumptions. We work across the full institutional spectrum from global systemically important banks to mid-sized regional institutions and emerging-market challengers.

Technology companies

Technology companies engage us when they need to understand the market they are operating in well enough to make confident strategic commitments, which institutions are investing, in what, and why; how procurement decisions are actually made inside a target bank; and where a specific product or solution fits within the transformation agenda of the institutions they are selling to. That is a different question from market sizing. It requires judgement about institutional behaviour, not just data about market scale.

Investors and boards

Investors and boards engage us when they need an independent view on financial services markets, competitive dynamics, and institutional performance, one that goes beyond what management presents and what sell-side analysts publish. We have no position to protect and no relationship to manage. We tell you what we see.

Regulators and development institutions

Regulators and development institutions engage us when they need primary intelligence on banking sector dynamics, financial inclusion, or technology adoption across emerging markets — assessed by people who understand both the data and the operational context behind it.

What we deliver

We structure every engagement around the specific strategic question that needs answering. The deliverable format follows from that question.

Board-level strategic retreats

For institutions at an inflection point, we design and facilitate structured sessions that reframe the competitive landscape, surface the assumptions the leadership team has stopped questioning, and build alignment around a forward direction. We do not facilitate generic strategy workshops. We come with a point of view and we put it on the table.

Strategic analysis

A structured advisory document that sets out what the evidence shows, what we believe it means, and what we recommend the client does about it. Written for board, C-suite, or investor audiences. This is not a research summary. It is a judgement, supported by evidence.

Our institutional foundation

The judgement we bring to advisory work is grounded in institutional infrastructure that most advisory practices do not have access to.

Our annual assessment programmes of more than 1500 banks globally give us insights, not licensed from a third-party aggregator, but maintained by our own research team from primary sources. The BankQuality programme gives us consumer-level intelligence on retail banking quality across Asia Pacific and the Middle East. The Future Bank Council and Transaction Finance Working Group give us direct, ongoing access to the senior executives making the decisions our clients need to understand. The Asian Banker gives us editorial intelligence on developments across more than 100 banking markets. Our Beijing, Singapore, India and Dubai offices give us in-market access to the world’s largest and most dynamic markets.

And our senior advisory panel — international resource directors and former banking executives who have held positions inside the institutions we advise on — gives us the operational perspective that turns data into judgement.

Talk to our team

If the decision you are facing requires more than a report, if it requires a partner who will take a position and tell you what they think you should do, contact us at maquino@tab.global.