Markets
Why It’s Time for Banks to Make Bold Late-Cycle Moves
View the full report from McKinsey & Company here

Why It’s Time for Banks to Make Bold Late-Cycle Moves
An economic downturn is approaching on the horizon. Amid low interest rates and a manufacturing slowdown, industries and investors alike are scrambling to prepare as the window of opportunity closes.
Banking is no different. After a decade of expansion, the industry is showing many signs of a late-cycle economy. On top of this, a staggering 60% of banks are destroying value. Today’s infographic from McKinsey & Company explores the steps banks can immediately take to succeed in the next economic cycle.
How is Value Created?
In the banking sector, three main factors contribute to value creation:
- The location of the bank
- The scale of its operations
- The effectiveness of its business model
Given that geographic reach is mostly out of a bank’s control, and scale takes time to build, banks must focus on their business model.
There are three universal business model levers that all banks can immediately act on to change their destiny.
1. Risk Management
Banks can protect returns in an economic downturn by managing risk. For example, new machine-learning models can predict the riskiest customers with 35 percentage points more accuracy than traditional models.
2. Productivity
To radically reduce costs, banks can transfer non-differentiating activities to third-party “utilities”, through outsourcing, carve-outs, or partnerships. This has the potential to increase return on equity by as much as 100 basis points.
3. Revenue Growth
When customers are satisfied, they generate more value for banks—and vice versa. For instance, customers who report low satisfaction with their mortgage experience are almost seven times more likely to refinance with a different bank.
By materially improving decisive points in the customer experience, banks can increase revenue and reduce churn rates within 12-18 months.
The Four Banking Archetypes
Beyond these universal performance levers, a bank should prioritize late-cycle economic decisions based on the archetype it falls under.
- Market leaders are top-performing financial institutions in attractive markets
- Resilients are top-performing operators despite challenging market conditions
- Followers are mid-tier organizations generating returns due to favourable market conditions
- Challenged banks are poor performers in unattractive markets
Different archetypal levers are available depending on each bank’s unique circumstances.
- Ecosystem
Banks can find new revenue streams across and beyond banking, leveraging customer relationships and white-label partnerships. - Innovation
Banks can create value by developing new methods, ideas, products and services. To implement this effectively, banks must set goals for the return on innovation as well as the timeframe. - Zero-based budgeting
By justifying expenses for each new period, banks can drastically reduce costs. This involves starting from a “zero base” rather than prior years’ numbers.
Here’s how banks across the various archetypes can take action:
Market Leaders | |||
Resilients | |||
Followers | |||
Challenged |
For example, while market leaders’ large capital base is best used for ecosystem and innovation plays, challenged banks need to radically rethink their business model or merge with similar banks.
Reinvent, Scale, or Perish
As the late-cycle economy slows even further, no banks can afford complacency. In fact, history has shown that 35% of market leaders drop to the bottom half of peers in the next cycle.
Now is the time for banks to take bold action through universal and archetypal levers—or risk being left behind.
For a more detailed breakdown of the actions that banks can take in this market environment, check out the full report by McKinsey & Company.
Markets
Graphene: An Investor’s Guide to the Emerging Market
The market value of graphene could reach $3.75 billion by 2030. As the emerging industry shows fast growth, it also faces obstacles.


Graphene: An Investor’s Guide to the Emerging Market
Graphene is an atomic-scale “honeycomb” that is revolutionizing the world of materials and capturing investor attention.
Experts predict that its market value could reach the billion-dollar threshold by 2027 and soar to a staggering $3.75 billion by 2030.
In this infographic sponsored by HydroGraph, we dive into everything investors need to know about this exciting industry and where it’s headed.
Promising Properties
Graphene possesses several unique physical properties which contribute to its wide range of potential applications.
- 200 times stronger than steel
- Harder than diamonds
- 1,000 times lighter than paper
- 98% transparent
- Higher electrical conductivity than copper
- Heat conductivity: 5 times that of copper
- 2,630 m² of surface area per gram
Since its first successful isolation in 2004, graphene’s properties have opened the doors to a multitude of commercial applications and products.
Applications of Graphene
Graphene has permeated numerous sectors like electronics, energy, and healthcare because of its impressive array of end uses.
Industry | Revenue CAGR of Graphene Across Industries, 2022-2027 |
---|---|
Biomedical and Healthcare | 52% |
Electronics and Telecommunications | 34% |
Energy | 25% |
Aerospace and Defense | 16% |
Other End-User Industries | 17% |
Graphene’s antibacterial properties make it highly suitable for medical instruments and implants. Furthermore, it has shown remarkable potential in helping treat diseases such as cancer.
Another one of the material’s applications is its ability to emit high-speed light pulses, or to combine graphene’s thinness and high-conductivity to create the tiniest possible light sources.
All in all, it’s difficult to sum up graphene’s properties and potential applications in one place. The supermaterial has been covered and cited in thousands of academic journals, and comes up with over 2 million search results on Google Scholar.
Graphene Commercialization
Graphene has evolved from a scientific breakthrough to a commercial reality in less than two decades, putting it firmly on the radar of many future-focused investors.
But despite the strides the industry is making, it is still in its infancy, and therefore challenges exist on the path to widespread adoption. Here are the top five commercialization obstacles perceived by industry players.
Obstacle | % of survey respondents |
---|---|
Cost | 31% |
Production Methods, Scaling, and Distribution | 21% |
Material Quality/Consistency | 17% |
Lack of Knowledge/Awareness | 15% |
Dispersion/Handling | 14% |
When transitioning cutting-edge materials from the laboratory to consumer products, challenges like these can be expected. But one company is tackling them head-on.
By producing 99.8% pure graphene, and ensuring batch-to-batch consistency, HydroGraph is helping meet the growing demand for graphene products across industries while addressing challenges like cost, scale, and quality.

Interested in learning more? Explore investment opportunities with HydroGraph now.

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