BFSI, FinTech & Crypto

Banking, Financial Services & Insurance Research and Advisory

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Banking, Financial Services & Insurance Research and Advisory

Investment research, financial planning and analysis, market intelligence, corporate strategy, and marketing support for wealth managers, asset managers, digital banks, PayTech and BNPL providers, InsurTech companies, fintech innovators, and the PE and VC funds investing across the BFSI ecosystem.

The Sector Today

The BFSI sector is navigating two overlapping structural pressures that are reshaping both the competitive landscape and the investment thesis for financial services assets. The first is embedded finance. The integration of financial services into non-financial platforms has fragmented the distribution layer that incumbent banks and insurers relied on, moving customer acquisition economics in favour of platform owners and out of the traditional financial institution's control. Robo-advisory platforms, embedded lending products, and PayTech infrastructure are changing who owns the customer relationship and what it costs to acquire and retain it.

The second pressure is RegTech. Regulatory compliance requirements in banking, insurance, and asset management are generating a significant and growing spend on technology solutions that can automate regulatory reporting, fraud detection, and compliance workflow. The intersection of AI and RegTech is creating investment opportunity and competitive displacement simultaneously: AI-native compliance platforms are reducing the manual cost of regulatory compliance for BFSI institutions while displacing traditional compliance technology vendors who built their products on rule-based rather than learning-based approaches.

For BFSI institutions, the strategic challenge is in adapting to both pressures simultaneously while maintaining the regulatory discipline that the sector operates under. For investors, the analytical challenge is in assessing which embedded finance and fintech models have durable unit economics, which RegTech platforms have genuine compliance automation rather than compliance facilitation, and which incumbent BFSI institutions have the technology capability to compete in a market where digital-first alternatives are setting the customer expectation.

The BFSI investment thesis that will hold up is the one that correctly separates the embedded finance and fintech platforms with genuine unit economics from those whose margins depend on regulatory arbitrage, capital-light structures that will not survive credit cycle stress, or customer acquisition economics that become unsustainable at scale.

Who We Serve

BFSI Institutions and Fintech Innovators

Wealth managers, asset managers, life insurers, digital banks, PayTech and BNPL providers, InsurTech companies, and fintech innovators that need investment research, financial planning and analysis, market intelligence, competitive benchmarking, and strategic advisory to navigate digital transformation, regulatory shifts, and competitive disruption from embedded finance platforms.

Corporate Strategy and Marketing Functions

Corporate strategy, product, and marketing teams within established BFSI institutions that need market intelligence, competitor tracking, regulatory monitoring, and thought-leadership content to support strategic positioning, product development, and stakeholder communications.

BFSI-Focused PE and VC Investors

PE firms, VC funds, and institutional investors with BFSI mandates that need independent investment research, deal diligence, portfolio monitoring, and market intelligence to identify, evaluate, and manage positions across fintech, digital banking, InsurTech, WealthTech, and RegTech investments.

What We Deliver

Investment Research & Analytics · Financial Planning & Analysis · Market Intelligence & Benchmarking · Corporate Strategy · Marketing & Stakeholder Communications

Investment Research and Analytics

White-label investment research and financial analysis for banks, asset managers, and investment firms requiring institutional-grade BFSI sector coverage, delivered under the client's name and within their workflow.

Equity research

detailed equity reports on BFSI stocks covering fundamental analysis, regulatory exposure, and valuation.

Fixed income and credit research

bond yield, credit spread, and rating analysis across banks, NBFCs, and insurers.

Company and sector profiling

competitive positioning and deep-dive profiles on BFSI firms for investor decision-making.

Financial modeling and valuation

integrated financial models with DCF and relative valuation for BFSI IPOs, fundraising, and investor pitches.

M&A target screening

strategic BFSI acquisition target identification by financial, regulatory, and sector fit criteria.

Analytical Outputs We Produce

BFSI equity research, fixed income reports, and company profiles for white-label institutional distribution.

NIM, ROE, and regulatory capital dashboards for BFSI CFO and investor reporting.

Earnings quality assessments covering Stage 2 loan exposure, restructured book analysis, and provisions coverage benchmarking.

Embedded finance market sizing and competitive landscape analyses across banking, lending, and insurance.

RegTech market opportunity assessments covering vendor benchmarking and compliance automation ROI analysis.

Pre-IPO financial models and investor materials for fintech and BFSI fundraising mandates.

Competitive intelligence tracking reports for BFSI institutions monitoring fintech disruptors and embedded finance entrants.

Regulatory monitoring reports covering RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and global BFSI policy developments.

BFSI in Practice

Case Study

Embedded Finance Market Sizing and Investment Thesis for a Fintech-Focused VC Fund

A fintech-focused VC fund evaluating the embedded finance opportunity commissioned Perusal Global for market sizing, competitive landscape analysis, and investment thesis development. The work covered TAM/SAM analysis for embedded banking and lending across three target markets: India, Southeast Asia, and the UK. Distribution layer economics comparing direct bank channels against embedded finance platform models, regulatory framework analysis including open banking mandates and data sharing requirements, and a competitive landscape mapping of incumbent banks, challenger banks, and embedded finance infrastructure providers. The output informed the fund's thematic allocation decision and shaped the target screening criteria for the investment programme.

Frequently Asked Questions

Embedded finance opportunity assessment covers three questions. Does the platform have the distribution and customer relationship depth to make embedded financial products relevant? A platform with high engagement, transaction volume, and customer trust can distribute embedded lending, insurance, or payments more cost-effectively than a standalone financial institution because the customer acquisition cost for embedded products through a high-engagement platform is significantly lower than through direct financial services channels. What is the revenue economics of the embedded product? The take rate, credit loss assumption for embedded lending, and regulatory capital requirements determine whether the economics justify the investment. What is the regulatory pathway? Embedded finance requires either a banking or payments licence, a partnership with a licensed institution, or access to Banking as a Service infrastructure, each of which has different speed-to-market and ongoing compliance cost implications.

RegTech due diligence covers regulatory fit, customer dependency, and technology defensibility. Regulatory fit: does the product address a compliance requirement that is mandatory, growing, and not easily addressed by incumbent in-house solutions? The strongest RegTech investments serve compliance requirements where the regulatory penalty for non-compliance is high and the manual cost of compliance is significant. Customer dependency: what proportion of revenue is from customers who have integrated the RegTech solution into a regulated process they cannot easily change? High regulatory integration creates more durable switching costs than typical software switching costs. Technology defensibility: is the regulatory intelligence, compliance workflow, or reporting logic proprietary, or could a competitor replicate it with standard data sources?

BFSI earnings quality assessment focuses on sustainability of net interest margin, loan portfolio quality, and consistency of fee income. For banks, NIM sustainability depends on asset-liability duration mismatch, competitive pressure on deposit rates, and rate sensitivity of the lending book. Loan portfolio quality requires looking beyond the reported NPL ratio to the Stage 2 loan proportion under IFRS 9, the restructured loan book, and provisions coverage relative to peers. Fee income quality distinguishes between recurring transaction-based income and one-off or market-sensitive income streams. For insurance companies, the equivalent assessment covers claims ratio sustainability, reserve adequacy, and investment portfolio duration and credit quality.

Fintech unit economics assessment starts with the specific business model because the relevant metrics differ materially across fintech sub-sectors. For PayTech and payment platforms: take rate per transaction, transaction volume growth, and the cost structure of the payment infrastructure underlying the margin. For digital lending: credit loss rate at scale versus at current selective origination, the funding cost structure, and the NIM after funding and credit cost. For embedded finance platforms: the revenue split between the platform and the financial services partner, the credit risk retention structure, and the regulatory capital implications. For all fintech models: customer acquisition cost at current scale versus the projected CAC at the scale implied by the financial model, because CAC typically increases as the addressable market moves from early adopters to mainstream customers.

A BFSI M&A target screening mandate covers universe definition, target identification, preliminary financial and regulatory assessment, and investment brief preparation. Universe definition establishes the specific BFSI sub-sector, geography, revenue stage, regulatory licence type, and strategic capability the acquirer is targeting. Target identification uses industry databases, regulatory filing analysis, VC funding data, and expert network intelligence to build a comprehensive list. Preliminary assessment covers revenue size, funding history, regulatory licence status, product differentiation, customer base composition, and strategic fit. The investment brief for each shortlisted candidate covers the specific rationale for the acquisition in the context of the acquirer's strategic objectives. Most mandates are completed within four to eight weeks depending on the breadth of the universe and geographic scope.

Regulatory monitoring for BFSI institutions covering multiple jurisdictions is structured as a continuous intelligence function rather than a periodic research output. The monitoring covers three categories. Policy and regulatory change: new and amended regulations from RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, the FCA, SEC, and other relevant bodies, with an assessment of the specific product, capital, or operational implications for the institution. Competitor regulatory response: how peer institutions are adapting their products, pricing, and operations in response to the same regulatory changes. Enforcement and precedent: regulatory enforcement actions and supervisory guidance that establish practical compliance expectations beyond the formal regulatory text. The monitoring output is delivered as a regular briefing, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly depending on the regulatory environment, formatted for the compliance, strategy, and product functions that use it.

Ready to Work?

The first conversation is about the specific decision your team is facing: a BFSI investment thesis that needs validating, a fintech market that needs intelligence, an institution navigating a regulatory change, or a fund portfolio that needs monitoring across BFSI positions. We will tell you precisely how we approach it.