Case study

Building a financial crime technology consolidation plan with clear cost and risk trade-offs

Co-Founder and PartnerMatthew Neill

A global payments firm had expanded rapidly through a combination of organic growth and acquisition. Over time, financial crime and fraud technology decisions were taken independently across regions, resulting in a fragmented estate shaped by local priorities rather than a coherent group strategy.

The situation became more acute following regulatory scrutiny on one entity, which prompted a wider review of controls across the group. Senior leadership lacked a single, reliable view of the technology landscape and needed to understand whether the firm could continue to operate regionally distinct platforms or move towards a more consolidated approach without increasing regulatory or operational risk.

BeyondFS was engaged to provide an independent, group-wide assessment of the financial crime and fraud technology estate and to set out clear, evidence-based options to support leadership decision-making at a point of heightened regulatory pressure.

Industry segment
Global Payments Firm
Function
Financial Crime Technology
Core capabilities
Technology Strategy, Operating Model Design, Vendor Consolidation

Key outcomes delivered

Established a single, group-wide view of financial crime and fraud technology across four regions, identifying 40+ solutions in use, including seven not previously visible to central leadership.

Defined three future-state consolidation configurations, reducing the technology estate from 40+ systems to between 10 and 15, with clear cost, risk and operational trade-offs.

Identified ~£450,000 of near-term cost savings through the removal of two high-cost, low-value platforms.

Provided a defensible basis to reduce regulatory exposure and operational risk, including fewer manual workarounds and lower key-person dependency.

Review

0 +

Financial crime and fraud systems identified

Saving

£0

Near-term cost savings

Geography

0 regions

Global coverage

Approach

A thorough, independent review to support consolidation decisions

BeyondFS carried out a six-week, group-wide assessment to establish a consistent and comparable view of financial crime and fraud technology across all regions. Working across teams and business lines, we identified systems in use, how they were deployed in practice and where reliance on manual processes and local knowledge introduced risk.

This work surfaced significant duplication of capability, limited integration between platforms and a number of solutions that were not previously known to leadership. Bringing this information together into a single view made structural risk, cost and complexity visible for the first time.

Applying market perspective and testing consolidation options

In parallel, we conducted a targeted market scan of more than 40 vendors to assess how existing and alternative providers could support consolidation. The analysis considered both vertical consolidation, aligning capabilities consistently across regions, and horizontal consolidation, reducing the overall number of vendors spanning multiple functions.

We pressure-tested emerging options with senior stakeholders, refined them to reflect regulatory, operational and regional constraints, and developed three future-state configurations. Each option set out clear implications for cost, risk exposure, operational resilience and implementation complexity.

Outcome

Providing leadership with a path to simplification

BeyondFS was able to give senior leaders a single, evidenced view of a complex and fragmented financial crime and fraud technology estate at a critical point for the organisation. By setting out a small number of practical consolidation options with quantified cost and risk implications, we enabled informed decisions on the future direction of the technology landscape.

The work established a clear foundation for subsequent vendor selection and implementation, aligned to the firm’s objectives around regulatory confidence, operational resilience and cost control, while reducing reliance on manual processes and key individuals.