The Big Picture reports from S&P Global Market Intelligence summarize the key themes impacting companies and industries around the world in 2022. Dive deeper into M&A trends, shifts in capital requirements, the ever-evolving growth of ESG and the “new normal” of life in pandemic times.
Banking
The U.S. government’s efforts to flood the markets with cash in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic proved a double-edged sword for banks by propping up borrowers but leaving institutions flooded with excess cash. At the same time, the pandemic pushed many banking customers to conduct business through digital channels, including those offered by well-funded fintechs. Amid a tough earnings environment and changing competitive landscape, some banks are working to modernize their offerings, while others are pursuing mergers in the face of daunting challenges.
Electric, natural gas and water utilities
The U.S. utility sector is dynamic, and stakeholders are paying close attention to major changes taking place that are affecting service providers of varying sizes. The growing need for investment in infrastructure upgrades and the desire to meet environmental, social and governance goals is expected to drive utility capital spending in the next several years. Investors, regulators and a variety of other entities with diverse interests are playing a critical role in moving the industry forward.
Information technology
The year ahead holds significant promise for IT, especially considering the recent upheaval that swept across the field. Enterprises scrambled to address the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and vendors and service providers pivoted to fill the needs that these shifts created. This report looks at five key areas in IT that will have significant impacts today and in the near future. They are bound together by the need to more closely connect technology to the people who interact with it, shifting technology from an end to a means. Technology must serve new models of work, meld dispersed elements of infrastructure, and inform and enhance customer experience while securing the systems and information that drive it.
Insurance
Insurers have long planned for pandemic risk from operational, strategic and financial standpoints. Emergence from a global pandemic represents entirely different challenges that will continue to present the industry with a new set of risks and opportunities.
Metals and mining
As the global economy began recovering from the pandemic in the second half of 2020, the metals and mining sector benefited from rebounding commodity prices. Demand for most metals was driven upward by the release of pent-up consumer spending, new government stimulus efforts and an accelerating global energy transition. Having emerged significantly leaner following the 2013-2016 downturn, the industry has roused itself to tackle new opportunities while looking to avoid a repetition of past excesses.
Technology, media and telecommunications
The pandemic’s aftermath looms large in 2022, altering consumer habits and charting a revised course for entertainment distributors. A hybrid return to normalcy offers a brighter outlook for film and broadcast station advertising while posing challenges to momentum for subscription streaming, broadband and global pay TV amid persistent semiconductor supply constraints.
