In mid-April 2023, we released our second APAC WealthTech Landscape Report 2023 (APAC WTLR 2023). This edition featured 15 articles, split into our standard client, adviser, and business sections, plus an A-Z solution provider directory with 615 entries.

In addition to releasing the report, we also held our first APAC WealthTech Live event in late May at the Singapore FinTech Association’s office on Robinson Road. After that, we were commissioned to study the business opportunity for a technology vendor across five markets in Southeast Asia. 

Below we’ve provided a quick overview of the content from the report. 

Report at a glance

Data insights
Our data insights gave an ‘at a glance’ guide to headline statistics for the APAC wealth management community. As countries like China, the Philippines and India open up, investments are set to continue increasing as more High-Net-Worth (HNW) and Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW) individuals come into a market which, APAC-wide, accounts for around 42% of global wealth, according to McKinsey. Asia also has more than a quarter of the world’s billionaires, and is projected to account for one-third of the world’s billionaires by 2023, according to data from Wealth-X. Mass-affluent investors are predicted to be worth US$4.7 trillion by 2026, up from US$2.7 trillion in 2021, says McKinsey. The potential incremental revenue from the mass affluent will be US$20 billion to US$25 billion, it says. By 2025 AUM in APAC will be US$29.6 trillion, almost double from US$15.1 trillion in 2017, according to PWC.

The client section looked at:

• Technology to improve UX – we interviewed Jitendra Tekchandani, Executive Director of MarTech and Cognitive Banking at DBS. He talked about the nudge approach the bank uses and the best uses of AI and ML to improve personalisation.
• AI – Fahd Rachidy, Founder at ABAKA, wrote about how wealth managers must provide holistic service and delivery to exceed customer expectations, and now AI enables this. 
• Philanthropy – Darshita Gillies, Founder & CEO of Maanch, and John Pepin, CEO of Philanthropy Impact, looked at how the next generation of philanthropists will structure their giving very differently and that impact investing will come to the fore.
• The multi-family office (MFO) model – Urs Brutsch, Founder of HP Wealth Management, tracked the rise in popularity of the multi-family office model.

The adviser section looked at:

• Adviser enablement – Darell Miller, Managing Director, APAC at Wealth Dynamix, looked at the digitally-enabled relationship manager and the pace of change.
• Data-driven disruption – Regional Sales Director at Azentio, Abhijeet Singh Hazare, revealed how advisers can be empowered and yield maximum results by unlocking the power of AI and alternate data. 
• Currency capabilities – Nick Briscoe, Country Manager – Australia at Currencycloud, looked at investment into and from Asia and the need for advisers to meet the need for currency capabilities. 
• The mass-affluent – Tanya Bartolini, Founder and Chief Revenue Officer at Jacobi, talked about the shift wealth management firms will need to take to respond to the growing demands of the mass-affluent market.
• Efficiency, growth and retention – James Verner, then of InvestCloud, wrote about the opportunity in equipping advisers to enjoy greater client retention and client growth, as well as operational efficiencies.

The business section looked at:

• Greater China – Nick Xiao, CEO of Hywin International, looked at how technology has had a massive impact on investing in the Greater China area.
• ROI, UX, and scalability - John Ennis, then of CREALOGIX, looked at how investors expect digital wealth services and financial institutions must deliver a premium UX that also delivers efficiency gains and supports growth at scale.
• Recruitment and staff retention – Leo McKeague, Executive Director of eMFusion, a consultative recruitment agency, looked at how wealth management firms need to work hard to appeal to prospective employees.
• Conflicts of interest – Kelly-Ann McHugh, APAC Director at MyComplianceOffice, looked at the steps wealth managers should take to avoid conflicts of interest.
• Core banking and ecosystems – Stephane Marbehant, Chief Executive Officer, Asia, at Stephane Marbehant from Azqore, explained how a proven back-office and core banking expertise in Asia, coupled with a FinTech ecosystem, provides a solid base to support a sustainable and profitable growth to private banks.
• Family office software -  Ashley Whittaker, President – Global Sales at FundCount, focused on the need for the growing number of family offices to be run on software that enables them to deal with data from disparate sources and in different formats. 

You can access the full APAC WealthTech Landscape Report 2023 here.

We’re looking forward to bringing you more in 2024. To see our report line-up for 2024, as well as our full offering, check out our Work with Us in 2024 catalogue.

Previous articles

Read our recent ‘A Year in Review’ article here.
Read our recent ‘Looking back on 2023: WealthTech 2023’ article here.

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