04/06/2025 Back to all articles

Belgian Financial Institutions (FI's) (banks, asset managers, insurers, leasing companies and payment firms) are facing a wave of complexity. Regulatory demands are increasing. Operating models are evolving. Transformation cycles are shortening. And internal bandwidth is often stretched thin. 

That’s where Interim Managers step in. But not all deliver real value. 

Having worked with a wide range of institutions, I’ve seen what separates average Interim Managers from effective ones. Here’s what I believe makes a good Interim Manager in today’s financial services landscape: 

Regulatory Expertise: A Key Strength of Financial Interim Managers 

The success of an FI starts with understanding and respecting the rules of the game: the regulatory context, but it doesn’t stop at compliance checklists. A capable Interim Manager must go beyond reading CRR, CSRD, MiFID, or DORA. The job is to interpret how these frameworks affect daily business operations, and to design solutions that are pragmatic, timely, and institutionally sound. 

These regulations don't only impact internal control functions; they impact everyone within the organization. 

Take MiFID II for instance: Its requirements touch far more than the compliance department. It impacts: 

• Front-office teams, who need clarity on product suitability and client classification. 

• IT, which must ensure data lineage and audit trails for client interactions. 

• Legal and Marketing, to manage fair, non-misleading product information. 

• Internal Audit, which needs to validate ongoing controls and record-keeping. 

An effective Interim Manager will bridge departments, not simply deliver a gap analysis. They translate regulatory demands into an integrated execution plan across business, IT, and control functions, without overengineering or underestimating practical constraints.  

Read also : The Evolving Compliance Talent Landscape in Belgium | Insights 

Breaking Down Silos: Driving Cross-Functional Alignment in Financial Institutions 

Whether stepping in as a Programme Lead, Transformation Manager, CFO ad interim, or Head of Operations, success depends on aligning people who don’t usually sit in the same room. 

Take regulatory reporting modernization as an example: It touches Finance (data owners), Risk (model inputs), IT (data pipelines), Compliance (control environment), and Internal Audit (validation). Strong Interim Managers facilitate this orchestration, not just by pushing tasks forward, but by setting clear scope, timelines, and accountability frameworks across departments. 

Fast Integration: Why Speed Matters in Interim Management for Financial Services 

By definition, Interim Managers don’t have six months to get up to speed. You’re expected to assess, decide on a way forward, recommend and act, all within weeks. 

But good Interim Managers don’t act in isolation. They: 

• Understand the organizational culture quickly (whether it’s a large bank in Brussels, a FinTech scale-up, or a Belgian branch of an EU bank). 

• Identify blockers early (e.g. legacy systems, fragmented accountability, or unclear regulatory interpretations). 

• Create momentum without creating noise; establishing credibility while staying delivery-focused. 

This matters whether you're re-engineering a reconciliation process, leading an IFRS 17 project, or aligning ESG KPIs with new EBA guidance. 

Delivering Measurable Outcomes in Financial Interim Projects 

Interim Management is a solution-focused and timeline-aware recruitment solution. That means that Interim Managers deliver tangible progress within 30, 60, or 90 days: from restructuring a reporting process to drafting a new three-lines-of-defense policy. 

For example, if you’re brought in to rework an FI's risk taxonomy following ECB feedback, it’s not enough to recommend a better framework. You need to: 

• Engage business owners to define risk ownership. 

• Align taxonomy changes with existing KRIs and thresholds. 

• Work with IT to reflect changes in tooling (e.g. Archer or in-house GRC platforms). 

• Ensure the change can pass validation by Internal Audit and second line. 

In short: think strategically, execute tactically. 

Read also : The Growth of Interim Management in Corporate Finance in Belgium | Insights 

 

Leveraging Independence to Influence and Build Trust in Finance 

As an Interim Manager, you're not burdened by office politics, but that doesn’t mean you’re immune to them. Great Interim Managers use their independence to push through difficult conversations, reset priorities, or cut through inertia. 

But they don’t isolate themselves neither. They invest in and build stakeholder trust: with regulators, board members, internal auditors, and junior staff alike. 

One useful approach: Weekly pro-active check-ins with the sponsor, paired with informal debriefs across silos. This helps surface tensions early and reinforces your credibility as a neutral enabler, not an external critic. 

Build internal capability, not dependency 

Strong Interim Managers deliver change that lasts beyond their mandate. 

This could be: 

• A robust documentation trail for regulatory inspections. 

• A successor who’s been mentored to take over. 

• A lean process that saves time without sacrificing compliance. 

They document well, train internal stakeholders, and hand over with integrity, so the institution gains not just a solution, but also internal capability. 

In my experience, being an Interim Manager in Belgium’s complex, multilingual financial sector is about much more than filling a gap. You’re stepping into a moving train, often mid-crisis or mid-project and expected to bring stability without slowing things down. 

The best Interim Management assignments I’ve seen, are those where you become a catalyst and deliver clear added value, not just for results, but for resilience. That means navigating competing priorities, earning trust quickly, and aligning people. 

It takes more than technical knowledge. You need structure, empathy, and the ability to deliver under pressure, while leaving something behind that actually works after you’ve stepped out. 

If you are interested, you can find more information on our Interim Management recruitment service.