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Introducing our Change and Transformation services

We offer a range of services to firms looking to enable strategic change and delivery. From M&A advisory and business strategy through to post merger integration, programme delivery and digital transformation, we partner with you to execute your vision – unlocking value, accelerating performance, and creating lasting impact.

Business Advisory

We help Financial Services firms to make complex decisions about their business: from which services to offer clients to the technology and operating partners they work with, our team is experienced in developing structured processes within senior teams to articulate a genuine strategy and work out how it can be met in practice.

Our expertise includes:

  • Strategic planning and execution
  • Service line optimisation
  • Technology and vendor selection
  • Operational efficiency reviews
  • Competitive benchmarking

M&A Advisory

We provide end-to-end support across the M&A lifecycle - before, during, and after the deal. Our M&A Advisory services go beyond traditional due diligence to include target operating model design, programme delivery and execution that ensures your transaction creates real, lasting value.

Our expertise includes:

  • Regulatory and operational due diligence
  • Target operating model design
  • Transitional Service Agreements (TSAs)
  • Integration planning and delivery
  • Post-deal transformation

Programme Delivery

We provide hands-on leadership and support to deliver your change agenda with precision and pace. Our experienced Programme Directors, Programme/Project Managers, and Business Analysts work seamlessly with your teams to drive complex initiatives forward.

Our expertise includes:

  • Programme and project leadership
  • PMO support and governance
  • Strategic transformation delivery
  • Major programme execution
  • Targeted project delivery

Digital Transformation

We help organisations reimagine and optimise how they operate - improving efficiency, agility, and performance at scale. Our Digital Transformation service focuses on automating processes, redesigning structures, and capabilities to better align with your strategic goals, utilising the technology of today.

Our expertise includes:

  • Process automation and optimisation
  • Organisational redesign
  • Cost reduction strategies
  • Customer experience improvements
  • Innovation enablement

Who we support

We work with organisations across the full spectrum of financial services, including:
  • Banks
  • Insurers
  • Wealth Managers
  • Asset Managers
  • Fintechs
  • Payment Providers
  • Crypto Firms

While our core focus is on financial services, we also support organisations in other sectors as they navigate their transformation journeys.

What our clients say about us

"The team at Thistle provided their specialist knowledge and expertise throughout the FCA application process from start to finish, including assisting with responding to the FCA’S detailed questions after submission. Suffice to say, we’re very happy."
Ely Place Partners logo
Ely Place Partners
“Thistle Initiatives provided us with a high level of support during our FCA application for authorisation, including meeting FCA expectations around CASS and assisting us in preparing our ICARA document. Additionally, they provided us invaluable expertise when answering challenging questions from the regulator and assisted us to achieve FCA authorisation quickly.”
Upvest
Upvest

“Thistle Initiatives provide us with invaluable expertise with their ongoing compliance support and delivered end-to-end assistance with our FCA application to add Alternative Investment Fund Management to our permissions. The service from the team is always on-point and efficient; we highly recommend them.”

London & Oxford Group
London & Oxford Group

“Our experience of working with Thistle Initiatives to add our CASS permissions has been great. Thistle helped to create the application to vary our FCA permissions and helped to respond to the FCA’s detailed questions following submission. Thistle assisted quickly and clearly at all times, including during the more complex aspects of the process.”

Cirdan Capital
Cirdan Capital

“Our experience of working with Thistle Initiatives has been exceptionally good. After due consideration and comparison of various service providers, WMG Advisors engaged Thistle to perform an external review of our systems and controls, our policies and procedures and to provide ongoing training to meet our compliance needs. Thistle deployed serious resources to the project, and provided comprehensive analysis and recommendations. Thistle has responded quickly and clearly to all of our requests to date. We continue to be impressed with both the methodology and the people that we deal with throughout their organisation.”

WMG-Funds
WMG Funds LLP
“From end to end, Thistle’s assistance with our discretionary and advisory application for FCA authorisation was fantastic. They provided a professional and efficient service assisting with all aspects; we are very satisfied with the outcome.”
Topstone-Capital-Limited
Topstone Capital

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Your points of contact

Sam_Coe - 1920 Wide

Sam Coe   linkedin-lead 1 mail
Partner

Sam has 14 years’ experience leading large-scale change and transformation programmes in Financial Services, working with Tier 1 institutions across Banking, Insurance, and Wealth and Asset Management. He has delivered major Regulatory Change initiatives, including responses to S166, Consumer Duty, and Operational Resilience, as well as pre- and post-deal M&A transformations such as target operating model design and post-merger integration. His work in Digital Transformation and Operational Efficiency has saved organisations millions in costs.

Joe Marti - 1920 Wide

Joseph Marti   linkedin-lead 1 mail
Partner

Joe has worked with and in many of the UK's leading wealth and investment management firms. Starting out as a discretionary manager with Barclays Wealth, he moved into consultancy in 2016 to specialise in the buy-side sector and predominantly with private client firms. He arrives at Thistle Initiatives from Alpha, where he was a Partner and senior member of the Wealth Management and Private Banking segment, supporting a range of private client firms to identify and delivery complex change to their propositions, business and operations.