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After a bruising year in which we estimate that its UK financial services revenues suffered an estimated 17% decline to £1bn (see UK SITS Supplier Rankings 2025 | TechMarketView), Accenture's new five-year collaboration with NatWest Group comes at a welcome time for the firm's UK financial services business.
Accenture wasn't alone in struggling in the UK financial services sector last year—it proved challenging territory for many IT services providers, with Wipro down an estimated 11% and Cognizant sliding an estimated 8%, as weaker demand for consulting and solutions services hit the market.
The tie-up with NatWest and AWS sees the trio embarking on a comprehensive data and AI transformation across the bank's 20 million customer base—the type of transformational programme that plays to Accenture's strength and helps to validate its £2.4bn investment in AI capabilities.
The collaboration promises to deliver the "holy grail" of banking transformation: truly personalised customer experiences underpinned by real-time data analytics and AI-driven insights. This aligns with growing regulatory pressures around Consumer Duty compliance, where banks must demonstrate they're acting in customers' best interests—something that requires the kind of sophisticated data analytics and AI capabilities this partnership promises to deliver. NatWest's ambition to become a "simpler, more technology and data-driven bank" aligns with Accenture's Solutions.AI portfolio, and the firm's track record in customer experience transformation through its Song division.
The win comes against a challenging backdrop. Accenture's recent Q3 results (see Forward-looking concerns overshadow Accenture’s robust Q3 performance | TechMarketView) revealed healthy total revenue growth of 7% year-on-year. However, the company spooked investors with a significant miss on new bookings—down 7% to £15.5bn, some £1.4bn below analyst expectations. CEO Julie Sweet's comments about a slowdown in discretionary consulting contracts only added to shareholder concerns about future growth prospects.
Positively, the NatWest deal shows there's still appetite for major transformation programmes, even amid the broader market challenges. This aligns with our forecast that the financial services SITS market will grow at 6.3% CAGR to 2028, driven by core banking modernisation and regulatory pressures like Consumer Duty implementation.
Posted by: Georgina O'Toole at 09:00
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