“The democratization of wealth management is a unique business opportunity for all of us. Rapidly changing customer needs, unchanged high regulation and new competitors in the market certainly lead to increased pressure on margins but also to more innovation, a higher degree of individualization and industrialization.”

Objetway participated to 15.Finanzplatztag discussing how to enable democratization in Wealth Management, touching the many aspects that are impacting and shaping the next future of Wealth.

Flying over the market

We’re currently operating in a fast-changing client demands scenario which leads to massive asset shifts within the market. Indeed, we see a growing segment of wealthy people, large assets are being transferred as the generation of heirs increases. In addition, new asset classes are arising, accelerating the democratisation of wealth management. The token economy opens new opportunities for participation (fractional ownership).

Such an environment has produced increased and strong competition in the wealth management and banking industry, together with accelerated innovation. Main driver of this innovation is changing customer behaviours. Customers are nowadays looking for hybrid offerings, seamless, digital services and providers that incorporate expertise, perfect data and technology support.

Technology is therefore also fundamental, in the form of Cloud Platforms that enable constant innovation, data driven techniques and AI that change customer segmentation, and finally Blockchain, which is suitable for all use cases in the banking sector. As a result, the virtual and real world are converging.

However, global shocks are threatening the stability of financial markets. These include wars, the collapse of global supply chains and the unchanged monetary policy of the central banks. As a result, nothing can be planned anymore and that is a poison for the capital markets.

Facing this many-sided scenario, the trend is for banks to increasingly invest in their customer solutions and thus in front solutions, being the focus of investment decisions. Investmenting enables major, meaningful customer engagement, further automation of advisor workflows, integration of non-traditional products into the wealth management platform and improving security and compliance features.

True to the motto “demand creates supply”, new providers are entering the market (neobanks, brokers, fintechs, betechs), accelerating process change among wealth managers. The fast ones that are customer-oriented, use modern and reliable technology, and have their cost-income ratio under control will survive.

A DIGITAL TRANFORMATION JOURNEY

Both asset managers and its market participants are experiencing the biggest changes in decades. Although it may come with upsetting feelings, this development represents a valuable opportunity to regularly adapt one’s business model and enhance the digital customer experience.

The formula of success? It’s all about relying on cloud technology to increase efficiency, scalability and resilience, simultaneously leveraging on a collaborative API ecosystem with an open platform approach, focusing on creating a unique customer journey with a high level of customisation and using the treasure of data to the customer’s advantage along the entire value chain.

At the end of the day, it’s a matter of being bold and thinking big, because it will get smaller on its own!