---
title: How Banks Win Institutional Clients and Mandates | Torke
url: https://torke.tech/industries/finance-and-banking
description: How custodians and banking platforms win institutions that already have a provider: who signs, how long a switch takes, and the signals that open a review.
---

# Switching a custodian is a project

You run the part of a bank or trading platform that sells to institutions: custody and booking for independent asset managers, a banking platform for other banks, execution, or transaction services for companies. Your prospects already have a provider, and pipeline stalls because moving to you means a migration that operations, compliance and risk all have to approve.

Diagram: Dated signals in Finance & Banking

In Finance & Banking, three dated signals open a target account for outreach: FINMA licence, Provider fee change, New COO appointed.

## Who this page is for

- Custodians and booking banks serving independent asset managers
- Banking platform providers selling to other banks
- Execution and transaction services sold to institutions and companies

Usual starting point: [Demand](https://torke.tech/service#practices)

## How do you increase sales for a bank selling to institutions?

Time your approach to the events that open a provider review. Institutions already have a custodian or platform, so a switch waits until operations and compliance accept the migration and the outsourcing review. Watch the named list for new FINMA licences, mergers and fee changes, and cover operations and compliance from the first contact. If you are a fintech selling to banks, the [Fintech & Crypto page](https://torke.tech/industries/fintech-and-crypto) fits you better.

## What do the numbers say about Finance & Banking?

Each figure links to the page it comes from, so you can check it before you repeat it.

| What the evidence says | Source |
|---|---|
| FINMA's circular on operational risks and resilience, in force since 1 January 2024, covers ICT, cyber and critical data risks. | FINMA (13 December 2022) |
| DORA has applied to EU financial entities and their ICT third-party providers since 17 January 2025. | EIOPA |
| FINMA had licensed 1,532 portfolio managers and trustees as at 28 February 2025. | FINMA (11 March 2025) |
| 230 banks were active in Switzerland at the end of 2024, according to SNB statistics. | Goldblum und Partner, citing SNB statistics (10 February 2026) |

[](https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2022/12/20221213-mm-anh-rs-op-risks/) [](https://www.eiopa.europa.eu/digital-operational-resilience-act-dora_en) [](https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2025/03/20250311-mm-abschluss-uvv/) [](https://www.goldblum.ch/knowledgebase/swiss-banking-system/)

## Why does the usual approach stall in Finance & Banking?

An institution rarely leaves its bank because a better offer arrived. Changing custodian or platform means moving client assets and accounts, rebuilding reporting and interfaces, and passing your bank through the client's own outsourcing and risk review, and in Switzerland FINMA's circular on operational risks and resilience, in force since 1 January 2024, covers the ICT, cyber and critical data questions that review asks. If your clients include EU financial entities, DORA has applied since 17 January 2025 and makes them manage their ICT third-party providers and the contract terms with them. The person who likes your pricing is usually a portfolio manager or a treasurer, and the decision waits until operations and compliance have a reason to take on the project.

Volume marketing has little to work with here. The institutions you can serve form a finite list: FINMA had licensed 1,532 portfolio managers and trustees as at 28 February 2025, and each is a named firm with an existing banking relationship. Broad ads reach individuals and retail investors you don't serve, and a platform bidding for form fills finds the cheapest clicks rather than the operations head who has just been told to review providers.

If you run a retail, private or cantonal bank whose clients are individuals and local businesses, this page describes the wrong problem, because that growth comes from branches, referrals and volume channels. Torke usually meets those banks as buyers, through the fintech companies that sell to them.

## Where does pipeline break in Finance & Banking?

We look at five stages in the Diagnostic, because each fails for a different reason. The rows show the failure we look for first at each stage and what changes once Torke fixes it, in the order a deal meets them.

### Discovery

Where it breaks

Institutional buyers and AI assistants find pages written for the person who likes your pricing, with nothing for operations or compliance

What changes once it is fixed

Visibility sets the positioning and builds the pages operations, compliance and risk read before they speak to sales

### Timing

Where it breaks

Asset managers agree your offer is better and stay with their provider for years, because the switch has no owner and no date

What changes once it is fixed

Account signals report dated events such as a new FINMA licence, an office opening or a provider's fee change, so Demand reaches the firm that week

### Evaluation

Where it breaks

Every prospect sends its own outsourcing and resilience questionnaire, and answers kept in scattered documents cost weeks of specialist time

What changes once it is fixed

The Fix stage builds the documents compliance and risk check, and campaigns on approved claims keeps every line within what compliance approved

### Qualification

Where it breaks

Friendly conversations with portfolio managers fill the pipeline with no operations lead, no compliance contact and no date attached

What changes once it is fixed

A reply counts only with the five facts recorded, including a named person at an agreed institution and a need or timing in their own words

### Handover

Where it breaks

Relationship managers track institutions in their own notes while marketing counts contacts, so nobody sees which firms are moving

What changes once it is fixed

Revenue operations sets one account structure, lifecycle stages and routing, so an asset manager's reply reaches its relationship manager that day

## Who is in the buying group?

One person rarely decides alone, so a lead from the wrong role moves nothing. These are the roles we map at every account on your list.

### Who signs

At an asset manager, the managing partner or CEO. At a bank buying a platform or a company buying transaction services, the COO or the CFO and treasurer, with the executive board for larger commitments.

### Who evaluates

Operations and the back office who will run the migration, the portfolio managers or treasury team who use the service daily, and IT for interfaces and reporting.

### Who can block

Compliance and risk through the outsourcing review, legal on contract terms and liability, and the incumbent provider's relationship manager, who will offer better terms to keep the account.

## Which signals open an account in Finance & Banking?

Each signal is a dated, public event a sceptical buyer could check in thirty seconds. Market-wide news can change an account's conditions, and we never write it up as something that company did.

| Signal | What it changes inside the account |
|---|---|
| A portfolio manager receives its FINMA licence or opens a new office | A new firm or a new location has to choose or review its custodian and booking setup now |
| A bank announces it is leaving a client segment or merging | Clients of that bank must choose a new provider within a set period |
| A new COO or head of operations is appointed | A new owner reviews providers and processes in the first months |
| A dated rule such as DORA or a new FINMA circular takes effect | Provider reviews reopen, and contracts are checked against new terms |
| A fund launch or expansion into a new market is announced | Custody, execution or payment capacity is needed by a stated date |

## What does a qualified lead look like here?

The COO of an independent asset manager on your agreed list replies that their custodian is changing its fee model for external managers next year and asks how you handle multi-custody reporting. The basis for contacting them in their country is recorded, and the account is not an open opportunity in your CRM. That reply, with the fee announcement it answered, is a qualified lead.

A lead counts only when all five facts are recorded, and you have five business days to reject it with a reason. The [Torke Service page](https://torke.tech/service#qualified) explains each fact.

**Fact one**

A named person in the buying group

**Fact two**

At an account you agreed to in writing

**Fact three**

A need or timing in their own words

**Fact four**

A lawful basis for contact

**Fact five**

Not already open in your CRM

## Where should you start?

Every client starts with the Diagnostic, and for a bank selling to institutions it most often points to Demand, because a switch depends on timing that dated events such as licences, mergers and fee changes reveal.

Every engagement opens with the Diagnostic, two to three weeks that end on one of four decisions: stop, fix one barrier, run one practice, or expand later.

Usual first step for Finance & Banking

[Demand](https://torke.tech/service#practices)

The practice the Diagnostic most often points to here, run month by month once it does.

[Get in touch](#get-in-touch)

## How do Torke Service and Torke Engine help?

The same engines run in both, so you can begin with one and move to the other without starting over.

### Torke Service, we run it

For example, the Diagnostic may find that most lost prospects stayed with their provider because no dated event ever forced them to review it. Demand then covers the asset managers on your list against signals such as new licences, office openings and provider fee changes, with operations and compliance included in the coverage from the start.

[How Torke Service works](https://torke.tech/service)

### Torke Engine, your team runs it

Campaigns on approved claims and account signals matter most here: the first because compliance has to stand behind every line, the second because institutions move when a dated event opens a review. First-touch outreach helps when your team writes to named people, since every sentence traces to something that person or firm said publicly.

For example, a marketer asks the assistant to list this week's events at the asset managers on the agreed list and draft a first email for the strongest one. It returns the ranked events with their sources, such as a new office announced on a firm's newsroom, and a draft where anything inferred is phrased as a question, which a person then reviews and sends.

[How Torke Engine works](https://torke.tech/engine)

## What can you expect?

You can stop after any stage and keep what it produced.

### A Diagnostic that may say stop

In two to three weeks you learn the one constraint, and if it is price, product or budget, the Diagnostic says so and stops.

### Leads named at agreed institutions

Each lead is a named person at an institution agreed in writing before the work began, with their need in their own words and the basis for contact recorded.

### A monthly read compliance can audit

Every month you receive the qualified leads with their evidence and a written read of coverage, spend and each channel's contribution with its uncertainty stated.

## What do teams in Finance & Banking ask about Torke?

Each answer stands on its own, so you can forward one to a colleague, and an assistant asked the same question can quote it as it is.

### Where should a bank selling to asset managers start?

A bank selling to institutions starts with Torke's Diagnostic, which reads the account list, the mandates won and lost over the last year and how relationship managers record them. It most often points to the Demand practice, because institutions change custodian or platform when a dated event opens a review.

### Why do asset managers who like our offer never switch custodian?

Changing custodian means moving client assets, rebuilding reporting and interfaces, and passing the client's outsourcing and risk review, so the switch waits until it has an owner and a date. Torke's Demand practice watches the named institutions on an agreed list for events such as a new licence, a merger or a provider's fee change, and covers operations and compliance from the start.

### How can a bank keep every marketing claim within what compliance approved?

Torke Engine's campaigns on approved claims module checks every line of an ad, newsletter or web copy against the facts and word rules a bank's compliance team approved. It exports files in each platform's import format with paid campaigns paused, and a signed-in person releases everything that leaves.

### How long is the sales cycle for finance and banking companies selling to institutions?

There is no reliable public average. A custodian or platform switch needs the client's own outsourcing review under FINMA's operational risk circular or, for EU clients, DORA, on top of the migration plan, so plan around those reviews.

### How many banks and portfolio managers are there in Switzerland?

SNB statistics count 230 banks active at the end of 2024, and FINMA had licensed 1,532 portfolio managers and trustees as at 28 February 2025, so a Swiss bank's institutional market is a finite named list.

## Read next on Finance & Banking

Articles that go deeper on what stalls deals in this market, and the industries whose buyers behave the same way.

### What counts as a qualified lead

Most arguments between marketing and sales about pipeline are arguments about a definition nobody wrote down. Five recorded facts settle them before they start.

[Read the article, 5 minutes](https://torke.tech/blog/what-counts-as-a-qualified-lead)

### The week something changed

In a category with no search volume, the only reliable opening is reaching an account inside the window a dated, public event created.

[Read the article, 4 minutes](https://torke.tech/blog/the-week-something-changed)

### Your market is closer to 400 accounts

Most demand programs for deep-tech companies are sized for a market that never existed, and the fix starts with counting the real account list.

[Read the article, 4 minutes](https://torke.tech/blog/addressable-market-400-accounts)

### Fintech & Crypto

Payments, compliance tooling, custody, tokenization and data platforms sold to banks, asset managers, insurers and exchanges, where control functions decide who can be onboarded.

[How we work in Fintech & Crypto](https://torke.tech/industries/fintech-and-crypto)

### Wealth & Asset Management

Investment strategies, funds and mandates sold to pension funds, insurers, foundations and family offices, where a board or investment committee decides on a consultant's advice.

[How we work in Wealth & Asset Management](https://torke.tech/industries/wealth-and-asset-management)

### Insurance & Insurtech

Claims, underwriting, pricing, distribution and core system software sold to insurers and reinsurers, where a business sponsor wants it and IT risk and outsourcing rules decide.

[How we work in Insurance & Insurtech](https://torke.tech/industries/insurance-and-insurtech)

## Other industries

[

Fintech & Crypto

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/fintech-and-crypto)

[

Robotics & Industrial Automation

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/robotics-and-industrial-automation)

[

Semiconductors & Electronics

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/semiconductors-and-electronics)

[

Medtech

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/medtech)

[

Precision Engineering & Machinery

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/precision-engineering-and-machinery)

[

Cleantech & Energy

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/cleantech-and-energy)

[

Cybersecurity

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/cybersecurity)

[

Wealth & Asset Management

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/wealth-and-asset-management)

[

Pharma & Life Sciences

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/pharma-and-life-sciences)

[

Advanced Materials & Chemicals

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/advanced-materials-and-chemicals)

[

Software & AI

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/software-and-ai)

[

Aerospace & Space

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/aerospace-and-space)

[

Insurance & Insurtech

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/insurance-and-insurtech)

[

Real Estate & Proptech

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/real-estate-and-proptech)

[

Legal & Compliance Tech

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/legal-and-compliance-tech)

[

Digital Health

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/digital-health)

[

Agritech & Food Tech

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/agritech-and-food-tech)

[

Cloud & Data Infrastructure

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/cloud-and-data-infrastructure)

[

Logistics & Supply Chain

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/logistics-and-supply-chain)

[

Telecom & IoT

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/telecom-and-iot)

[

Mobility & Automotive

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/mobility-and-automotive)

[

Luxury & Watchmaking

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/luxury-and-watchmaking)

[

Construction & Building Tech

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/construction-and-building-tech)

[

Consulting & Professional Services

- ](https://torke.tech/industries/consulting-and-professional-services)

[All industries

- ](https://torke.tech/industries)