Former HSBC COO heads Sopra Steria Financial Services arm

12 June 2018 Consultancy.uk

The former UK Chief Operations Officer of HSBC’s commercial bank has joined consulting firm Sopra Steria. Craig Wilson will focus on improving the firm’s customer centricity, and will capitalise on his key strengths as the firm’s new Financial Services leader.

Sopra Steria, a European consulting firm specialising in digital transformation, provides a comprehensive portfolio of end-to-end service offerings to its clients. The firm assists customers with consulting, systems integration, software development, infrastructure management and business process services, and is subsequently trusted by top private and public-sector entities to deliver transformation programmes that address their most complex and critical business challenges.

The growing prevalence of digital technology has prompted a gold rush in the sector, with companies looking to exploit new technology to boost their companies’ efficiency often seeking the help of consultants to execute such a transition. As a result, digital transformation consulting is currently worth $44 billion as a global service line – something which has helped Sopra Steria to grow to a headcount of nearly 42,000 employees in more than 20 countries, with a revenue of €3.8 billion in 2017. So far, 2018 has seen Sopra Steria continue to bolster its position in the Financial Services market, with Co-Op Insurance and Royal London Group extending their application management contracts with the firm, while Sopra Steria has partnered with Fintech Scotland to drive the region as a FinTech hub, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) employed Sopra Steria to deliver the UK’s largest digital market data processing platform.

Craig Wilson, Managing Director - Sopra Steria

In order to help cope with the heightened demand it is experiencing, as well as to grow its fiscal arm further amid hunger for digitalisation in the financial sector of the UK, Sopra Steria has appointed Craig Wilson to the position of Managing Director of Financial Services, where he will be focus on broadening and deepening relationships with Sopra Steria’s current and prospective customers. A release by the firm stated that Wilson will position customer needs at the heart of the firm’s Financial Services strategy, enacting plans to capitalise on Sopra Steria’s core strengths in Delivery, Fintech and Customer Experience as clients look to overhaul their infrastructure and operations amid increasing regulatory change and digital disruption.

He arrives at Sopra Steria after almost two decades at HSBC, where he held various senior management and Director-level positions over an 18 year tenure. Most recently this saw Wilson working as Chief Operating Officer of HSBC’s UK Commercial Banking Division. During this time, he led on discretionary and regulatory change including the UK’s commercial response to the Deferred Prosecution Agreement, MiFID II, GDPR and CMA and implemented numerous digital transformation projects within HSBC’s front and back offices. The new role with Sopra Steria is Wilson’s first since opting to leave HSBC for a new challenge in 2017.

Craig Wilson said of his new challenge, “At its heart, Financial Services is a people industry, and I’m excited to lead a team which has a long history of success enriching the customer experience when banks and other Financial Services organisations seek to digitise their propositions.”

John Torrie, CEO at Sopra Steria UK, said of the hire, "I am delighted to welcome Craig into a major strategic role for us. He will play a crucial part in helping the business achieve its growth targets for the future, while ensuring we continue to provide a high-quality level of service to our Financial Services by bringing in leading talent in digital user experience and regulation. His long-standing client-side experience and network will also bring us closer, stronger connections across the Financial Services industry as a whole.”