The finance industry cannot wait for the speed, mass suitability and flexibility that API enabled platforms can offer. Mario Alves from Aachen, Germany-headquartered aixigo talks about the drivers and the benefits.

API-driven wealth management platforms cater to the demand for full digitised service provision from banks, financial advisors, asset managers and others. This idea is that a platform connects the functional capabilities of an experienced portfolio management and advisory system provider with radically new data analytics and process management technology.

Rather than competing with the existing core banking system of a bank, the APIs integrate all existing data sources and provide refined data for flexible processing. By doing so we get to a totally new level in technical support of investment business models in terms of process flexibility, data access and system performance.

We see three clear drivers:

• Regulation
• Digitalisation
• Big Data & AI

Trends turn into demands – and demands turn into challenges
The trends regulation, digitalisation and Big Data and AI combine to form three technological requirements: speed, mass suitability and flexibility. Being fast in digitalised business means that users are no longer willing to wait. They want something and they want it now. Now has become the standard. And if we say now, then we mean a calculation period for any account analysis of a maximum of 300 milliseconds. That’s damned little.

But what does it mean to be fit for the masses? Being fast is not enough alone. Imagine, you are an asset manager and you are really fast … 300 milliseconds for an account analysis including an optimisation proposal. Just too bad that you are really successful and manage 100,000 customer accounts. Now you want to relocate the accounts as quickly as possible. You need 100,000 x 300 milliseconds. That’s 30,000 seconds or 8 hours. And the markets are running and running. Speed alone is not enough. At the same time, you also need mass suitability to accommodate all that data!

And what does it mean to be flexible? Flexibility means being able to react to customer demands. Offering three options to choose from is old-fashioned. The customer, a consultant, a portfolio manager, a marketer or a product manager asks a question and it will be answered. This means, among other things, that pre calculated data is also no longer sufficient. In practical terms it means that platforms such as ours need to come with creative teams who have the freedom to develop new user-oriented ideas and implement them quickly – without long project plans and release cycles.

And now let’s add another one: it is not sufficient just to be fast. It is not sufficient just to be flexible. And it is also not sufficient to just be suitable for the masses. We need to be fast, flexible and suitable all together at the same time. And this combination is the big challenge for the existing legacy systems housed in most banks.
This is exactly where platforms like our aixigo High Performance Portfolio API comes in. It takes the raw material data from the legacy systems, refines the data and provides them with a quick, mass suitable and flexible way to all customer systems. The aixigo API currently comprises almost 100 services.

Each of these services can be configured via call parameters. The possibilities that result from this are almost limitless. This will make your infrastructure fit for the big trends in the investment business. 

Unique
The basis of the aixigo High Performance Portfolio API are five basic principles that we did not invent but consistently apply. To make the data quickly available, they are kept in an in-memory database. To reduce processor latency, we use so-called cache oblivious algorithms. We guarantee the fast transfer of data between different algorithms via high-speed interconnections. We achieve this flexibility through a REST API design and an integrated BPM engine. In this way, we equip your custody account data with state-of-the-art technology and prepare you for the challenges of the future.

There are no limits set to your creativity when it comes to using the API.

In essence, we see two different areas of application:

• Portfolio analysis, monitoring and reporting
  Here, the API can be used as an infrastructure component to provide your advisor front ends with processed data, to generate regular custodian reporting for clients, to provide detailed analysis results for marketing on-demand and in particular to feed an innovative digital depot experience for your clients with data. Be it apps, chatbots or speech interfaces.
• Digital asset management
  The API provides all the processes and functions required for digital asset management in the retail business. The flexibility of the REST API allows you to innovatively form the digital client experience yourself.

Of course, the API can also be used in the context of investment advisory processes and there support the automation of advisory processes to meet the requirements of MiFID II Regulation.

API driven platforms ultimately offer the speed and connectivity that the industry now demands. The right platform is also underpinned by support and continual improvement that should drive a business forward by enabling the speed, mass suitability and flexibility needed today.

This article features in the UK Wealth Technology Landscape Report. See that here.