StraitsBridge Advisors has been recognized by APAC CIOOutlook Magazine as the recipient of “Top Business Intelligence Solution Companies,” based on our proprietary methodology, reflecting its position in the industry. This profile has been developed by the APAC CIOOutlook research and editorial team based on insights from an interview with Sanjay Uppal .

StraitsBridge Advisors
Bridging the Gap between Advisory and Execution Support to Aid CFOs

Sanjay Uppal , Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Finance is a critical business function in financial institutions that if mismanaged can lead to significantly adverse outcomes. To deal with finance related tasks, most businesses, specifically, banks and financial institutions typically rely on CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) to drive business growth, eliminate suboptimal costs, and ensure robust financial controls. However, recent years have seen the CFO’s role evolve enormously. They now face increased pressure from ongoing economic uncertainties, intensified regulatory oversight, need for financial restatements and increased investor scrutiny. To meet these requirements, financial institutions often turn to advisory firms for assistance.

However, there often lies a gap between the advice and execution support CFOs need to enhance enterprise-wide financial effectiveness and what traditional consulting firms offer. This gap was identified by an industry veteran Sanjay Uppal, who holds over two decades of experience in various senior finance & CFO roles. He, with the vision to bridge this gap, founded StraitsBridge Advisors in 2010. This Singapore based company provides pragmatic advisory and execution support to CFOs across banks and financial services firms.

The StraitsBridge team consists of former CFOs, senior finance professionals, finance technology experts, and data & analytics specialists who bring vast experience gained in their careers with leading global financial institutions. Together, they develop solutions for Finance Transformation, Business Intelligence & Data Warehousing, Finance Control & Risk Management, Balance Sheet & Capital Management, Finance Technology & Systems and Investor Relations for financial institutions.

These services are widely availed by the commercial banks, private banks, asset management firms and investment banks. “To help achieve effective transformation in finance function and help CFOs in their strategic initiatives, our bespoke approach leverages best practices and customizes them to develop and deliver solutions that will work for their organizations,” says Sanjay Uppal, Founder & CEO, StraitsBridge Advisors.

CFOs, in the past, had to confront several critical needs in terms of finance operations, and at times they even expected to take up various roles within the organization pertaining to internal control, efficiency, performance measurement and strategy. StraitsBridge brings first hand help for CFOs to deal with these issues. It offers a comprehensive finance transformation strategy, which helps addressing these challenges by visualizing and shaping the future state of finance. “We assist our clients in addressing these challenges through our bespoke delivery models and methodologies that deliver superior solutions. Our approach seamlessly brings together our knowledge of financial services industry, technology and data & analytics to achieve desired objectives for our clients,” says Shripad Keni, Head - Business Intelligence & Finance Systems, StraitsBridge Advisors.

In the coming years, we see StraitsBridge becoming a leading advisory firm, providing specialist and bespoke services across the CFO domain in financial services

StraitsBridge delivers end-to-end solutions that help CFOs to maintain a unique approach and numerous comprehensive methodologies while creating highly important business strategies. It has developed delivery models and methodologies that combined with its multi-skilled teams have enabled it to reach out to businesses across Asia, Middle East and Africa. The ultimate goal of the company is ‘to be a leading independent advisor to CFOs’ in the financial services sector. It aims to deliver innovative solutions, successful outcomes and build sustainable value for its clients. Sanjay adds, “In the coming years, we see StraitsBridge becoming a leading advisory firm, providing specialist and bespoke services across the CFO domain in financial services.” Going forward, the company will also focus on providing advisory solutions to technology firms in financial services.