A new ‘abnormal’ by John P. Garvey *
Dear reader, We started out this year intending to write a series of papers about the long-term prospects of the financial services industry. Obviously, COVID-19 has changed our plans, as it has upended so many other things, from individual lives and businesses to geopolitics and entire industries. COVID-19 will change many aspects of financial services forever, accelerating trends already begun, creating new trajectories and slowing down or even stopping a number of changes previously underway in their tracks. Therefore, we are asking ourselves: Are we adapting quickly enough, given the environment?

In our recent series, Beyond COVID-19 , we examined the impact of the pandemic on banks, insurers, and asset and wealth managers. Those pieces cover in more detail not only how the industry will look as we recover from the pandemic, but, more importantly, the specific steps that individual organisations can take to remain competitive and successful in this new world. In addition to those publications, we thought it would be helpful to examine some of the macro trends affecting the industry as a whole and their impacts on individual segments. We hope that you find these insights helpful and provocative. Stay safe, and please feel free to reach out to me and my colleagues with your comments and feedback.

Sincerely,
John P. Garvey
* Global Financial Services Leader, PwC US