Substantial progress has been made in stabilizing the financial sector since the crisis 6 years ago. Yet a great deal remains to be done. The focus of this issue of Frontiers in Finance is navigating change and transformation. In the issue we address the complex financial services landscape and some of the principal transformation issues senior executives are struggling with today. The G20 meeting in Brisbane in mid-November set the broad context for economic reform and further financial services regulation. We look at some of the key items on their agenda, review the results of the European Central Bank's (ECB’s) stress tests of Europe’s biggest banks, and explore the implications of IFRS9.

In addition, we explore two contrasting facets of data management in financial services. Many would argue that managing data and all its ramifications, and extracting the most valuable and useful information from it, represents the biggest single challenge – and opportunity – facing the industry today. Closely connected are the systems underpinning both data management and transaction processing. We believe these are both complex and critical subjects facing financial services.