90 Day Round-Up: Technology (Apr - June 2021)

9 0 D AY R O U N D - U P TECHNOLOGY S ele c t e d s t o r i e s f r o m A p r i l t o J u n e 2 02 1

Dear Reader

This month, Asian Private Banker returns with its latest 90 Day Round-Up, with a focus on Technology. Featuring a selection of our most popular stories from the last 90 days covering the latest trends, people and technology news in the region, our reporters have been shedding light on matters key to the future of technology and data-driven solutions.

We hope you enjoy the look back at our technology coverage from the past 90 days and stay tuned for our Investments coverage round-up which will drop at the start of August.

Kind regards, Patricia Jover Marketing Manager Asian Private Banker

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1 April 2021

Guotai Junan to launch fully automated onboarding for WM clients

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uotai Juan Securities has been developing a remote onboarding and KYC solution for wealth management clients, which is expected to go live in April. The solution enables clients to set up an account through the mobile application, while remaining compliant with regulatory requirements.

The remote onboarding solution is in the final stage of testing, with a prototype already rolled out. Bassanio Lo, managing director of Guotai Junan Securities (HK) Limited, said much progress has been made over the last 12 months, spurred on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We have made tremendous efforts to design a remote onboarding application and an e-KYC solution. We have redesigned the ongoing due diligence process using “robotic process automation” (RPA) to achieve improved efficiency for our KYC and onboarding process,” he told Asian Private Banker.

In addition, the wealth management business in Hong Kong has launched a dedicated team to oversee fintech research development, which sits under the business unit. The team is mandated to research and formulate competitive fintech strategies, capitalising on connections with technology vendors, fintech start-ups, quasigovernment agencies, and the academia.

Lo explained that the ultimate goal is to “think ahead and identify solutions that create value for the clients and generate ROI for the company”.

Speaking of the progress the company has made in digital transformation, Lo pointed out that its deployment of big data and analytics tools to analyse client behaviour and their business network has resulted in more than HK$3 billion in AUM within the past year alone.

“We integrated big data of investment behaviour with our client base and identified the existing clients who have not been actively engaging with the firm,” he elaborated. “By analysing external information on substantial shareholder movements, its associated persons, and the client’s tendency to invest in particular sectors, we have come up with a strategy and reached out to the client with a tailor-made solution.”

Striking a balance “Fintech is something that we must steer carefully to strike a balance between the disruptive technologies and the current regulatory environment,” Lo cautioned.

He believed that while there is a first-mover advantage for innovators of novel technologies, the practicality and applicability of the use case are equally critical.

“Take robo-advisor as an example: it has a distinctive advantage for the mass market, but when it is applied to the HNW sector, we must consider issues such as the fulfilment of investment suitability for multi-asset class portfolios and the best execution policy.”

The firm has been working closely with its parent company in mainland China — which serves a much larger domestic client base across a wide spectrum. In the next few months, it is expected to roll out AI customer service and chatbot functions.

“For all wealth managers and private banks, human touch and tailormade advisory services are key components of the service value chain,” Lo noted. But, he added, the post-pandemic reality has compelled wealth managers to find digital alternatives to fill in the gap where human services are difficult to deliver.

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7 April 2021

StashAway launches in Hong Kong, keen on gaining HNWI wallet share

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fter rolling out its services in multiple markets in Asia, digital wealth management platform StashAway is also available in Hong Kong from today (7 April). It has obtained licences for Type 1, 4 and 9 regulated activities from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, meaning it can engage in dealing in securities, advising on securities, and asset management.

Leading the expansion is Stephanie Leung, head of StashAway Hong Kong, and a member of StashAway’s investment committee. As deputy CIO for institutional investors and family offices, Leung has managed multi-asset portfolios with over US$2 billon in AUM. She explained to Asian Private Banker that StashAway doesn’t have a minimum threshold to access its wealth management services, but is keen on gaining wallet share amongst Hong Kong’s HNWIs, especially the next generation who is seeking wealth management solutions that are more digitalised, more transparent, and with a proven performance.

“HNW portfolios consist of many different asset classes and we would love to optimise the public equity portion for them. Depending on clients’ preferences and risk appetites, the size of this portion will vary in each HNW client’s overall assets,” said Leung.

“At any point in time, our clients gain exposure to thousands of securities through highly-diversified ETFs. Therefore, StashAway is an effective and low-cost way to diversify HNW portfolios that are concentrated in private equity or private company holdings.”

To ensure that the investment advice is customised to the needs of HNW clients, StashAway’s wealth advisors provides in-depth asset allocation reviews, on top of the standard offerings.

“Ultimately, StashAway becomes a slice of their portfolio, keeping in mind individual client needs, risk tolerance and specific situations to assess the right allocation of StashAway within that entire pie,” Leung added.

Making investing accessible to all Compared to private banks, StashAway is able to produce “similar, if not better, returns”, only charges a management fee and is highly transparent, Leung asserted. For example, the rebalancing and autotrading services are included in the management fee, which ranges from 0.2%-0.8% of the client’s AUM. Access to the wealth advisors is a complimentary service for HNW clients.

StashAway offers an automated and personalised portfolio management service by creating 12 globally diversified growthoriented investment portfolios at different levels of risk exposures for clients to choose from. Calculated before fees, the annualised returns of the investment portfolios ranging from 21.3% (for its highest-risk portfolio) to 4.7% (for its lowest-risk portfolio) in USD terms as of February 2021.

According to the firm’s press release, since their inception in 2017, StashAway’s portfolios have consistently outperformed their respective same-risk benchmarks — which are the MSCI World (Continued on next page.)

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Index for equities and the FTSE World Government Bond Index (WGBI) for bonds.

“We manage risk and returns by investing into large, liquid, and globally-diversified ETFs, and by continually optimising our portfolios to ensure that they remain resilient in any economic environment,” said Freddy Lim, co-founder and CIO of StashAway.

“This approach means anyone can invest safely over the long term, withdraw any time, and effectively plan for their future.”

Product expansion in the next 12 months Currently, the firm is only investing through US-listed ETFs, which allows it to diversify across a wide range of asset classes globally at the best total expense ratio — because of the breadth and depth of the US ETF market.

Leung pointed out that StashAway is monitoring different market developments. Hong Kong ETFs are being evaluated, since their liquidity has improved over the past two to three years. After having

established a presence across multiple Asian markets since their establishment in Singapore in 2016, the firm is seeking to broaden its product shelf.

“The last 12 months we have focused on country expansion,” explained Leung. “We started with Singapore in 2016 and Malaysia in 2018. The UAE followed in 2020, and this year we launch in Hong Kong and Thailand.”

“We have been busy working on these market expansions and we have a lot to manage, not to mention [the fact] that our company has grown from 50 to over 150 people at the same time. Hopefully, we’ll be looking at launching new products in the next 12 months for our different client segments.”

StashAway has witnessed rapid business growth. In January, it announced that its AUM surpassed US$1 billion in less than four years, of which a steady 20% has been contributed by HNW clients.

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15 April 2021

Julius Baer’s digi advisory suite “repurposes” advisory process in Asia: Rajesh Manwani

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ulius Baer’s Digital Advisory Suite (DiAS) has gone live in Asia, with Rajesh Manwani, the bank’s head of markets and advisory solutions in the region, telling Asian Private Banker that the system essentially “repurposes” the entire advisory process and streamlines the workflows of RMs. “There are three ways in which DiAS makes an impact,” Manwani explained.

“First, DiAS offers customised investment content, so that our advisors can meet the needs of clients more easily. Second, it enables client-facing staff to navigate complex regulatory requirements and offers compliant advice effectively. And third, the assistant automates administrative duties, saving time and improving efficiency.”

And the implication for the business and client experience is manifold. Manwani said the solution should lead to a significant improvement in risk management, shorter time-to-market, and a greater comprehensiveness of advice that clients receive from RMs across the entire value chain.

Indeed, Julius Baer on Thursday said that the solution, which screens the bank’s investment universe and recommends investment ideas based on clients’ investment objectives and risk appetite levels, “goes beyond previous systems” in its blending of machine learning algorithms and RM requirements.

It “[brings] Julius Baer to the forefront of digitalisation”, the bank said.

Furthermore, the investment suitability framework and process are integrated and automated through the DiAS platform.

“It has enabled us to move from multiple front-end interfaces into one workflow, which includes not only pre-trade checks but also the order management aspect,” Manwani pointed out.

DiAS also facilitates the RM-client interaction — creating an “end-toend” advisory process that not only offers RMs a complete overview of client situations, but helps them identify potential opportunities for engagement.

Designed to support the bank’s entire business, Manwani said the platform caters to each client’s needs irrespective of their mandates — whether execution-only, advisory, or discretionary in nature.

“But since a meaningful portion of our high-end client assets is in advisory mandates, which come with additional expectations, the platform caters to these needs as well,” Manwani added.

The software, rolled across Julius Baer’s global locations since 2017, was developed in-house. Manwani said bank’s team in Singapore had played an important alongside peers in Europe to tailor the solution for Asian clients.

“We will be one of the few banks,” Manwani noted, “to have a locally adapted, front-to-back advisory platform that is still integrated globally.”

Meanwhile, Jimmy Lee, head Asia Pacific, Bank Julius Baer, said the bank will “continue to invest significantly in technology to help relationship managers strengthen personal connections with clients.”

“In light of changing market conditions and the evolving needs of clients in Asia, it is increasingly imperative for the financial industry to accelerate innovation and digital transformation,” Lee said.

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11 May 2021

InvestCloud strengthens its Japanese presence through WM deal with MUFG InvestCloud has inked a deal with Japanese lender Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) to deploy its wealth management platform.

InvestCloud’s Wealth Adviser Platform aims to improve end-to-end WM services among retail banking and mass affluent investors in Japan.

It will also be used by many MUFG employees to support end-to-end wealth management and financial planning, according to a press release.

InvestCloud said the partnership with MUFG not only reflects the multi-jurisdictional reach of its Wealth Adviser Platform but also its pioneering status in Japan, the second largest wealth management market by country.

InvestCloud has made a “significant investment in its Japanese presence,” noted Christine Ciriani, CEO of InvestCloud Private Banking division.

“The strength of our local team is being recognised by some of the largest firms in Japan because the team understands the financial culture and has the right discipline to deliver projects to our Japanese clients.”

The fintech provider has built its presence in Japan since 2019 and has a local team of IT and WM professionals to meet the needs of financial service providers in Japan.

Haruka Homma, the Japan country manager at InvestCloud, was looking forward to “growing our Japanese presence and supporting MUFG through delivering innovative and market-leading platforms for wealth management services amidst a fast-growing regional customer needs”.

Last month, InvestCloud announced an engagement with Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities for the deployment of an InvestCloud WM platform aimed at boosting team productivity and improving its service of Japanese HNW investors.

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25 May 2021

Burst in adoption is behind us, but “digital genie is out of the bottle”: Symphony

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inancial institutions — private banks included — may not repeat the remarkable surge in digital adoption witnessed over the past year, but their extensive deployment of and investments in digital technology are bound to persist. Collaboration tech provider Symphony expects a slight “deceleration” in growth this year, but asserted that there is no reversal of the broader digital trend.

Zeroing in on the operational pain points of financial services firms, Symphony’s workflow and communication solutions received a major boost since the early stage of the pandemic, as companies scrambled to put in place an infrastructure to navigate the remote working situation, while struggling to keep clients engaged.

With a slow “return to normal” unfolding at many FIs in Asia, despite recent hiccups, Symphony foresees that the sudden burst in the use of applications such as its own “is probably behind us”.

“There will certainly be a slight deceleration, as FIs better comprehend what they have implemented in the last year and make sure that it is fit for purpose,” the firm’s current president and chief commercial officer Brad Levy told Asian Private Banker.

“Things will slow down, but there will be more thought as to what they have and what they may need. The digital genie is out of the bottle.”

Levy is sanguine about the momentum for growth. Compared to prepandemic levels, he stressed, the speed of adoption and the engagement level on digital platforms have gone up and are still increasing.

Furthermore, there is a change in dynamic: firms are more proactive in pushing Symphony for new solutions, whereas in the past they needed to be persuaded to adopt new technology.

Finer segmentation The experience of many FIs throughout the pandemic helped [us] better define the collaboration and workf low solution segment, said Levy.

There are implications for Symphony on a strategic level. The firm expects to deepen its general collaboration offering at an enterprise level to target specific markets within financial services — whether these are regional markets, or particular business segments and individual users.

Levy pinpointed an ongoing initiative around analytics and workflows for more complex instruments in FX markets. He added that digital assets too are an area of interest for Symphony.

On the other hand, industry players are under pressure to differentiate themselves from competitors, most of which are equipped with at least a minimum level of digital capability. But the bar is being set higher.

“You’re going to see the gap between the winners and the losers increase, or that different types of institutions will emerge because they can’t all do the same thing,” Levy argued.

The playing field for fintechs is no longer what it was back in the days — with fintechs, banks, asset managers, and other service providers interacting closely while potentially vying for the same client base.

“There is so much connection and dependence now between them that it is hard to define the competition,” said Levy. “We will see more consolidation among fintech players, and firms need to find ways to compete, connect, but also co-exist.”

He added that the company is exploring potential acquisitions to increase its capabilities on top of existing offerings, and hinted that there could be a few deals happening within this year.

Symphony announced earlier that Levy will assume the role of CEO on 1 June 2021, replacing the incumbent David Gurle, who founded the business more than six years ago.

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2 June 2021

VP Bank partners with InvestCloud to deliver WM services via open platform

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P Bank announced today that it has linked up with InvestCloud in a bid to bring out personalised wealth management services powered by an open platform.

out that the platform will enable the bank to provide both its clients and third-party clients access to innovative services concerning wealth management issues.

The Liechtenstein-based bank said that through the platform, it will bundle both its in-house as well as third-party offerings to create customised financial solutions. Those innovative products will be made available to its own clients, but also to, for example, wealthy individuals who have no direct relationship with VP Bank and instead are served by financial intermediaries within the ecosystem. This will create a multiplier effect for the bank and broaden its market without incurring significant costs for client acquisition.

“With InvestCloud as an experienced partner at our side, we will be able to drive innovation and provide customised, bundled wealth solutions,” he added.

VP Bank added that the platform attests to its commitment to “Strategy 2026“, a five-year plan that aspires to establish the bank as an international open wealth service provider for intermediaries and HNWIs. The three key themes underpinning the strategy are: digitalisation, sustainability, and Asia growth story.

Emphasising the importance of the platform to the bank’s positioning as an open wealth service provider, VP Bank CEO Paul Arni pointed

Earlier this year, wealthtech provider Finantix announced its strategic merger with InvestCloud and became integrated in its private banking division. The division is led by Christine Ciriani, formerly CEO of Finantix; she is now CEO of InvestCloud Private Banking & Wealth, Europe and Asia.

“Our platform and the ever-growing range of modular wealth management apps enable the implementation of digital, intuitive and personalised advisor experiences,” Ciriani commented. “We are very pleased to have been selected by VP Bank as its partner for this strategic engagement, and to be able to support the bank in the development of its open wealth service platform.”

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4 June 2021

Temenos and Huawei ink global partnership as Chinese tech giant marches into finance

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emenos has announced that it will form a partnership with Chinese technology provider Huawei to offer its core banking solution on Huawei’s public cloud. This makes the fintech firm the first core banking software certified with Huawei’s infrastructure and public cloud.

Announced at the Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit 2021, held in Shanghai on 3-4 June, the partnership is expected to marry Huawei’s strength in cloud hosting, implementation, and integration with Temenos’ banking software.

The partnership’s coverage will span the Asia Pacific region — with a special focus on China, the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), as well as Latin America. This would include Temenos’ user base of more than 3,000 banks and financial institutions covering 1.2 billion end clients, and Huawei’s network of 2,000+ financial institutions globally, including 47 of the world’s top 100 banks.

Being able to implement Temenos’ core banking solution on Huawei’s cloud means that financial institutions can scale up their solutions while maintaining cost and operational efficiencies, said Temenos in a press release.

The scope of the partnership ranges from sales and marketing, implementation, to training. That means that the two firms will jointly go to market in China and other regions with “aligned marketing and sale processes”. Under the partnership, a number of new prospects are already in the works.

Temenos observed that demand for cloud-based banking models has accelerated during the pandemic. Moreover, it is already the established software deployment method for digital-first banks which require fast go-to-market and minimal infrastructure costs.

Larger banks are following suit, albeit many in Asia still take a hybrid approach that combines on-premise with cloud deployment out of a mix of security, scalability, and performance concerns, Temenos told Asian Private Banker in March.

Last week, Temenos has revealed the latest developments to its cloud solution suite, which combines digital banking with a sandbox for

testing and innovation, a marketplace for collaboration within the fintech ecosystem, all powered by an AI engine.

“As the cloud moves from a maybe to a must, we are seeing the continued acceleration across all geographies and all types of banks looking to innovate and consume capabilities on-demand,” Ross Mallace, business line director — SaaS, Temenos, told Asian Private Banker.

The Chinese IT giant took the opportunity to detail its plan to expand into financial services and to reveal three strategic initiatives to help financial institutions develop into “digital ecosystem-based enterprises”, according to a press release by Huawei.

These include encouraging companies to fully embrace cloudnative, innovative technologies to accelerate digital and intelligent convergence; deepening digitalisation to enhance secure data transfer and unlock the potential of big data; use software-as-a-service (SaaS) to build an open ecosystem and enable scenario-based financial services.

Philip Barnett, president of strategic growth and member of executive committee of Temenos, described the partnership as a “joint go-tomarket strategy” and believed it will give a significant boost to the fintech firm’s market penetration in China. “And we are extending to the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America,” he added. “Our certification on Huawei Cloud demonstrates that our cloud-agnostic banking platform enables banks to pursue a multi-cloud strategy and have the highest levels of active-active resilience with the cloud provider of their choice.”

“Huawei is willing to continue to strengthen cooperation with industry-leading technology solution-competent partners such as Temenos. A digital ecosystem is a place where all participants create and share value together,” said Ma Yue, executive vice president, Huawei Enterprise Business Group (EBG); president, Huawei EBG global partner development and sales.

He added: “By strengthening partnerships, we can solve problems and create value for customers together, expand the cake, and open up new growth space for the finance industry.”

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9 June 2021

HKMA rolls out Fintech 2025 strategy to drive all-round tech adoption by banks

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he Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Tuesday unveiled its Fintech 2025 strategy for driving fintech development in Hong Kong. The comprehensive adoption of technology by the financial sector by 2025 is to be encouraged by broad-based support, including guidance on the use of novel technologies, development of data infrastructure, the grooming of tech-savvy financial services talent, as well as government funding for eligible fintech projects.

The banking regulator laid out five focus areas to work on: fintech adoption of banks, research on the application of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), creating an industr y-wide data infrastructure, developing a fintech-savvy workforce and nurturing a fintech ecosystem with grants and policies.

At the launch of the Fintech 2025 strategy, Eddie Yue, HKMA chief executive stressed the importance of digitalisation of banking services and encouraged the banking industry to “double down” on fintech developments, as he pointed out that “the quality of any banking experience will be much correlated to how much of that experience is digital”.

He pointed out that the pandemic had permanently changed customers’ behaviour and that their “digital appetite will outlast the pandemic”. He believed that to satisfy their increasing digital appetite, it was necessary for the financial sector to increase its fintech offerings, which in turn, would make customers “hungrier for more”.

Source: InvestHK

“It is time to work together as a whole to embrace the numerous untapped possibilities that fintech can bring. Fintech has the potential to become a major economic growth engine in the postpandemic era, and it would be in the banking industry’s best interests to be a part of this progression.”

Identifying areas to be supported To promote fintech adoption by banks, HKMA is launching a tech baseline assessment to identify areas where the regulator may be able to offer support. The results are then compared with overseas peers (Continued on next page.)

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to identify fintech business areas (or specific technology types) which may be underdeveloped, and would benefit from HKMA support.

For example, artificial intelligence or blockchain, or any areas in financial services that could facilitate the business process but are still technologically underdeveloped. The results of this assessment are to be delivered in 1H22.

Guidance on novel technologies Another way to drive fintech adoption is for the regulator to provide guidance on promising fintech areas that may entail risk management challenges.

HKMA has mentioned its plan to launch the “Regtech Adoption Practice Guides” series to address how novel regtech can be applied to cloud computing, blockchain and AML surveillance. The suggestion was proposed in the two-year roadmap for regtech adoption announced by HKMA in November 2020.

Enhancing the financial data infrastructure The establishment of the Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) has provided access to corporate data which were “nearly inaccessible” before. This has allowed banks to connect with new data providers on the platform with “minimal effort”.

HKMA is hoping that the improved data infrastructure can empower the industry and encourage participants to develop innovative financial products and solutions, in turn building up the overall appetite for fintech solutions.

“We often hear comments that the lack of data has been a major impediment to banks’ competition with the big techs. But the reality is that a lot of data are scattered across different sectors, entities, and platforms. There is no efficient way for traditional financial institutions to tap into these treasure troves, with the consent of data subjects where necessary,” Yue said.

In order to capitalise on data so as to launch innovative financial solutions, and unleash Hong Kong’s potential for the next generation of banking, asserted Yue, “we need to enhance Hong Kong’s financial data infrastructure”.

Grooming a fintech-savvy workforce As the fintech industry is fairly young and rapidly expanding, Yue pointed out that Hong Kong is facing an “acute fintech talent shortage” and would need to groom “professionals who can develop fintech solutions, instead of merely being users of it”.

The regulator has collaborated with the banking industry and local universities to launch the Industry Project Masters Network (IPMN) scheme. Starting from September 2021, the scheme provides monthslong internship opportunities to master students, in order to let them gain hands-on experience in areas including AI and federated learning.

In terms of brushing up the professional competencies of existing banking practitioners, HKMA will launch a new fintech module for the Enhanced Competency Framework by the end of 2021.

“A collective effort with the banking industry as well as our strategic partners will enable us to nurture home-grown fintech talent and maintain our competitive edge as an international finance centre,” said Yue. Considering the “intellect and work ethic of our students and professionals”, he was confident that this an objective that could be achieved “without difficulty”.

A new era The Fintech 2025 strategy follows on HKMA’s seven initiatives to move Hong Kong into “a new era of smart banking”. One of the initiatives has been the Fintech Supervisory Sandbox 2.0 where the regulator offered a Fintech Supervisory Chatroom to free up communication between the regulator and the city’s financial services providers and tech firms around the development of new technology applications.

The strategy aims to upgrade the sandbox by exploring the possibility of providing funding support to qualified fintech projects. Its practical details are being discussed with the Innovation and Technology Commission.

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17 June 2021

HSBC Private Banking starts online trading platform for HNW clients in Asia

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SBC Private Banking announced today that it has made online trading available to HNW and UHNW clients in Asia, with access to 10 markets in Asia, the US, and Europe.

Clients will be able to trade cash equities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from their mobile devices with real-time quotes and price charts. The digital platform also tracks and analyses their investments in real-time and provides portfolio reviews, according to a press release.

The new feature is an addition to, and integrated with, the private bank’s existing mobile application, which already provides portfolio view, research & content updates, and reporting functions, according to Asian Private Banker‘s AppMap 2020.

The bank said that by 2022, it aims to extend the range of available asset classes and products on the platform to more complex instruments, such as limited warrants, callable bull bear contracts (CBBC), FX spot and forwards, structured notes (ELN & FCN), noncomplex funds, dual currency instruments, and fixed income.

“We are excited to unveil our new Online Trading platform, enabling our clients to invest directly in key equity markets globally from their mobile phones,” commented Tan Siew Meng, regional head of HSBC Private Banking, Asia-Pacific.

In the past two years, the private bank rolled out the mobile application alongside an integrated and direct client communication channel for smoother client engagement, as well as an investment knowledge and research platform to keep clients abreast of key events specific to their portfolios.

In February 2021, HSBC announced its intention to invest over US$3.5 billion in the next five years to accelerate the growth of its Wealth and Personal Banking (WPB) business in Asia.

Of that amount, US$800 million will go to the Global Banking & Markets business in Asia, in a bid to enhance digital platforms for wealth clients — through which the bank expects to provide FX, structured products, investment opportunities for HNW/UHNW clients and family offices in the region.

Tan added that the private bank has been investing considerably in its product, distribution and digital capabilities to support the wealth growth plan at the group level. The aim is to “deliver an enhanced suite of digital products using best-of-breed technology, providing our clients with a significantly improved experience”.

In May, around 80% of retail wealth sales in APAC were done through digital channels, HSBC said.

She added that the bank expects to invest more than US$100 million in the next two years to build and innovate its core banking and digital platforms to meet fast-changing client needs.

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17 June 2021

Private bankers understand the increased importance of their digital tools: Ciriani of InvestCloud

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t is not only PB clients who see effective digital tools as a differentiator for PBs — private bankers themselves share this opinion. And having the right tools may help the bank attract some of the most sought-after PB talent.

InvestCloud’s Christine Ciriani told Asian Private Banker that digital platforms can make all the difference in PB talent management. “In the recent hunt for PB talent, it’s the first time in the last six months that CEOs have been calling us, saying that candidates want to see what digital tools the bank uses.”

T h e C E O o f I n v e s t C l o u d ’s i nt e r n a t i o n a l pr i v a t e b a n k i n g Christine Ciriani, InvestCloud & we a lt h d i v i s i on — for m e r l y Finantix — observed that potential candidates at PBs started to list “having good digital tools” as key to their decision to join a bank. “They care about the level of efficiency digital tools bring to their work,” said Ciriani. “That efficiency can really become a differentiation for the bank.”

For instance, burdensome documentation has long been one of the major frustrations of PB clients and their RMs. “It is basic servicing, but it is probably the biggest pain that takes and absorbs the most time from RMs who shouldn’t be spending the time only just doing basic servicing.”

Ciriani believes the pandemic catalysed the change in perception of digitalisation and said certain behaviours — such as accessing information digitally and engaging with clients remotely — will stay permanent. If a bank can deliver such digital features to its RMs and clients, it can be a major differentiator, she said.

CLM is the new CRM The concerns of private bankers have mirrored the focus of PBs’ digital push, and a major part of that revolves around increasing RM productivity and optimising client experience. Over the past year, InvestCloud has seen an emphasis on the importance of client lifecycle management (CLM), which has replaced discussions around client relationship management (CRM).

(Continued on next page.)

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“In some ways, we say CLM is the new CRM, and this is increasingly important to optimise across both discretionary and advisory businesses,” said Mark Trousdale, chief marketing off icer at InvestCloud. He spoke at a webinar session by the firm — Global Private Banking & Wealth: Lessons from the Front Lines — last week.

InvestCloud is planning to run an APAC-targeting session in two weeks as well.

This goes beyond a simple shift of terminology and implicates a deeper change in how PBs approach client data, Ciriani argued.

“The digitalisation of CLM (or CRM) was previously a response to reg u lator y pressure, which required ba n k s to prove t hat they complied with onboarding and know-your-client (KYC) responsibilities,” Ciriani explained, adding that the compliance element initially drove the need for digitalisation and automation of the onboarding process.

But today, the focus has broadened to servicing the client across the entire lifecycle. “This means that rather than only addressing the regulatory questions, banks are starting to use this information as an opportunity to provide relevant recommendations.”

content, even before the account is activated. This is an extremely powerful extension of a CLM solution that allows the relationship to start at the prospecting phase and extend to servicing across the client lifecycle.”

Under constant margin pressure, PBs are seeking to level up their ability to source fresh AUM. This also translates into a more robust use of CRM for client prospecting, which has seen its importance increase dramatically for many banks — especially in Asia, with a swathe of wealth being transferred across generations.

“PBs traditionally did not hunt for clients in a consistent and measured manner,” explained Ciriani. “This is where we have an opportunity to use the same solutions which automate regulation to identify potential leads and improve prospect-to-client conversion.”

She continued: “Using data to improve prospecting, tracking and attracting new money, not just from existing clients, but also their ecosystem or extended relationships, means the banker can focus on the right prospects. Doing that in an intelligent way matters, so that the bank can immediately move onto KYC and then onboarding seamlessly.”

One instance of the effective use of CLM data is through the creation of a “pre-client portal”, Trousdale pointed out. “If the bank is in the process of onboarding a prospect, it will be easier to engage and share

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