EFG Bank: Planning with Confidence Across a Global Private Bank

How do you bring greater control to planning across 80+ Business Units?

EFG Bank is a global private banking group headquartered in Zurich, managing CHF 185 billion in assets across approximately 40 locations worldwide. With around 750 Client Relationship Officers serving high and ultra-high net worth clients across four continents, precision and speed in financial planning are core to the business.
As the organization expanded, planning became increasingly difficult to coordinate. Budgets and forecasts relied on hundreds of spreadsheets shared across more than 80 business units, making consolidation slower, governance more challenging and collaboration increasingly dependent on manual effort. EFG needed a single, trusted planning foundation - one capable of growing with the business.

From Spreadsheets to a Single Planning Engine

An integrated planning model replaced fragmented processes with a structured foundation for every planning scenario.

The transformation began when Avvale was engaged to resolve performance issues in EFG's existing cost allocation application. After optimizing the solution through detailed process analysis, the collaboration expanded: redesigning the Group's entire planning architecture from the ground up.
Together, EFG and Avvale replaced fragmented spreadsheet-based budgeting with a unified OneStream environment supporting budgets, forecasts, rolling forecasts, and long-term strategic planning within a single platform. Rather than digitizing existing processes, the project reimagined how planning could better serve the business.
A flexible multidimensional model was designed to accommodate different levels of detail – from business units to legal entities with full monthly granularity – while enabling both top-down strategic direction and bottom-up operational contributions across 80+ business units. A hybrid Waterfall-Agile approach ensured continuous validation alongside EFG teams throughout the 6-month delivery.

One Platform. Four Scenarios. Zero Spreadsheets

Centralized planning replaced manual consolidation with greater visibility, governance, and control.

EFG now runs Budget, Forecast, Rolling Forecast and Strategic Plan from a single, centralized platform – eliminating manual file preparation, fragmented ownership, and reconciliation risk across 80+ Business Units.
The new processes save around 5 person-days per month, including approximately 3 days previously spent preparing templates and 2 days on closing, consolidation and reporting activities.
The impact goes beyond efficiency. A more granular approach to fixed compensation, incorporating known future workforce changes, has improved the quality and reliability of Budget and Forecast submissions, helping Business Units build more accurate bottom-up plans. Structured workflows and automated checks have also significantly reduced the risk of operational errors, while shorter Rolling Forecast submission times have been positively received by users.
Planning now combines faster execution with stronger data quality, giving Finance a more reliable foundation for managing the business.

Key Enhancements

Unified Planning Environment

Automated Planning Workflows

Real-Time Business Visibility

Why Integrated Planning Is a Strategic Priority in Private Banking

Private banks face a structural tension: the need for granular, entity-level financial visibility in an environment where client relationships – not systems – are the primary asset.

As AUM grows and regulatory complexity increases, Excel-based planning becomes not just inefficient but strategically limiting.
EFG's transformation reflects a shift taking place across the industry: from reactive, spreadsheet-driven processes to proactive EPM environments that give finance teams the clarity to plan ahead, rather than simply report the past.

EFG Bank: Planning with Confidence Across a Global Private Bank

How do you bring greater control to planning across 80+ Business Units?

80+

Business units connected

4

Planning scenarios end-to-end

6

Months from kickoff to go-live

5

Person-days/month saved

“Avvale’s contribution during the design and requirements-gathering phase was key to defining the model to be implemented. The team supported us throughout the implementation and ongoing activities, ensuring continuity and effective use of the solution.”