Etops is active along the entire value chain of wealth managers. This includes services, technology and consulting. Etops offers outsourced services for all back and mid-office tasks. Interfaces based on a unique machine-learning parser technology developed by Etops, which reads and processes bank statements and booking confirmations, ensures a high proportion of custodian bank coverage and processing of data with very low error rates. This creates an ideal environment for flexible multi-bank setups in all reporting and data visualization areas as well as for wealth management platforms.
On this basis, Etops offers portfolio management solutions for wealth and asset managers, pension funds and family offices, as well as comprehensive reporting and dashboard solutions for all types of banks. Each Etops solution and implementation is supported by experienced consultants both in IT and in the business context. The range of products includes both standard software and tailor-made solutions. Etops also offers SaaS-based platforms enabling smaller market participants to access stateof-the-art technology at a competitive price and to cover all compliance requirements. Etops currently serves more than 41 clients with over CHF 42 billons of assets under reporting.
Thought leaders
- Pius Stucki, CEO and founder of Etops AG
Pius Stucki has broad experience in product management and information systems for the asset management industry. Having worked with Swiss banks and family offices for a number of years, he has built up extensive experience with operations and software solutions for asset managers, family offices, pension funds and private banks. As a former professional athlete Pius still loves to compete successfully in running and cycling events. - Christian Jedlicka, Principal consultant at Etops AG
After several years in securities and derivatives trading and fund management, Christian Jedlicka successfully switched to the software and service sector in Austria and Switzerland in consulting and management positions. He has extensive experience in the field of software solutions and digitization projects for the financial industry, with a focus on wealth management and private banking.
What is your view on the current state of the market with regards to how wealth managers are managing their investment portfolios? What are they doing well, what are the challenges, and what areas could be improved?
From our perspective, there are currently three key factors that have a major impact on wealth management: The need for further digitalization, the need to address sustainability issues and the continuing increase in regulatory measures.
Increased digitalization
Experience with the COVID-19 pandemic has taught most companies that digitalization must be emphasised even more in the future. This also holds true for the wealth and asset management industry, which has been rather hesitant to take steps in this direction. For too long, the focus has been on core areas such as the modernisation of reporting, for example, while neglecting such essential areas as fully digitalised workflows (e.g. in the area of customer onboarding). In this respect, it will no longer be possible in the future to rely exclusively on the services offered by custodian banks. We believe the megatrend of digitalization will now also gain momentum in the financial sector.
Sustainability
The climate debate has clearly revealed that people around the globe are becoming more aware of sustainability issues. Numerous events and media reports, as well as appropriate financial products, clearly show that the financial industry is also prepared to adapt to this change and to provide investors with the best possible support in consciously orienting their investments towards sustainability. For the future, it will be important that asset management solutions not only deal with traditional financial market data, but also consider and interpret figures from the sustainability sector. Companies such as Etops, with their many years of experience, help to consolidate, analyse and visualize the extensive data material.
Regulation
MiFID II, FIDLEG, AML. There is a long and growing list of regulations the financial industry has to deal with and this list will certainly not get any smaller in the foreseeable future. Modern technology is helping the wealth management industry not only to cope with this challenge, but to turn it into an opportunity. Swiss wealth managers are currently facing official regulations for the first time, which in many cases require modernization of their technical setup and thus create the opportunity to optimize internal processes while at the same time strengthening customer service.
The opportunities
The trend towards digitalization offers new perspectives for wealth management. Not only fully digitalized onboarding with e-signatures and automated generation of contract and banking documents, but also modern communication technologies enable enhanced and efficient customer interaction. This is additionally supported by personalized reports and analyses. State-of-the-art data visualization offers investors as end customers permanent access to their assets with all necessary data and analyses, even on all mobile devices.
The trend towards sustainability enables wealth and asset managers to attract new client segments and provides an improved basis for successful discussions with future generations of heirs of their clients. ESG has therefore become a common term in the financial industry and wealth managers need to understand new key measures such as footprint values, megatrend exposures and climate impact. This will require additional data and new visualization approaches.
Which leads to another essential aspect: data and its analysis. The quantity of data already available today is enormous and growing, not only through the data generated from new areas such as the sustainability environment mentioned above, but also through the inclusion and analysis of unstructured data. This requires further improvements in data management and data visualization. Modern data science helps to understand and use the data efficiently and in the future wealth managers will be able to use machine learning to recommend investment solutions based on the behaviour of their clients over a certain period, and to identify and approach potential new clients. We are therefore witnessing a structural change taking place in the clientele of wealth managers because the wealth created by generations from the precomputer age is being passed on to digital native heirs. Modern wealth management must therefore meet the expectations of the younger generations in order to remain competitive.
Wealth managers need to be aware that today their clients have their own access to an unmatched flow of data from a variety of sources that provide them with information about what is happening in the global markets. But this represents a challenge for wealth management professionals as they are expected to keep on top of the global market data and extract the relevant information to develop appropriate investment proposals. Modern technology, supported by automated data analysis and selflearning algorithms, can help portfolio managers and relationship managers concentrate on their actual tasks and provide the basis for robust investment proposals. The data also provides the foundation for personalized marketing activities and comprehensive attractive customer reports.
In this dynamic environment, driven by social change and new regulations, wealth managers must therefore develop a clearly defined strategy, supported by reliable and holistic data and the right tools to succeed in a changing market. Although the trend towards digitalisation in the financial sector has led to new developments in many areas of the banking sector for some years now, independent asset managers are still lagging far behind. The level of digitalisation is still low and there is still potential for improving efficiency and increasing the attractiveness of the offerings. Admittedly, the pressure of declining margins in recent years has prevented many from making the necessary investment in this area however new platform-based offerings, such as those from Etops, allow cost-effective entry into stateof-the-art technology and thus increase competitiveness while meeting all compliance requirements.
It is essential for wealth managers today to meet the increasing demands of the new client generation, the regulatory challenges, and emerging trends such as the sustainability aspects, with state-of-the-art technological solutions, without the need to invest substantial funds on new software and systems. The bottom line for wealth management is that SaaS-based platforms will remain the megatrend of the industry for years to come.
What solution(s) does your company offer the market and how do they help wealth management firms manage their investment portfolios better?
Based on a mix of services, technology and consulting, Etops offers solutions which cover the entire value chain of wealth managers. This includes solutions for lead generation and client lifecycle management, mid and back office services, custodian bank interfaces for multibank setups, proven portfolio management systems, compliance and sophisticated reporting solutions for all purposes and state-of-the-art data visualization concepts.
SaaS-based platforms are gaining popularity in the area of independent wealth managers, enabling smaller companies to access state-of-the-art technology at a competitive price and to cover all compliance requirements. Etops currently builds platforms for wealth managers located in Switzerland and Liechtenstein which are offering FIDLEG compliant onboarding processes (with e-signatures), combined with a flexible portfolio management system that has all the necessary functionality to ensure the compliance with the new regulations.
Etops also offers state-of-the-art tools for managing clients. Etops can offer a range of services such as the implementation and configuration of flexible onboarding solutions, including the population of contracts and e-signatures, to tools supporting the whole client lifecycle management, and the identification and acquisition of new clients.
Etops’ solutions not only enable wealth managers to create modern attractive reports but also build fully digitalized approaches, with direct access for the end clients via web browsers and mobile devices including smart phones. The generation of digital natives will ask for access to their portfolios and will expect clear and attractive user interfaces. Etops provides the technology and the knowhow which allows the wealth managers to grant their clients access to all their assets, anywhere, anytime.
Etops also provides wealth managers with all the tools necessary to cope with the regulatory requirements and to offer the end clients consolidated views on their wealth both in the traditional PDF format and in digitalized ways via web browser and mobile devices.
In order to support wealth managers in the most effective way Etops is building a specialized platform based on elements provided by Etops and associated companies, which serve as a foundation for further developments and add-ons delivered by 3rd parties.
The central features of the Etops’ wealth management platform are as follows:
- Etops’ offerings include dedicated reports for specific asset classes like private equity and even cover dedicated reports for sustainable investments.
- Data collection, cleansing, enrichment and consolidation: Etops’ unique self-learning parser technology, combined with an experienced back office team, ensures comprehensive data and extremely low error rates. In many cases Etops enhances the data with additional information, e.g. data for fund calculation or sustainability criteria.
- Portfolio Management: A proven portfolio management solution ensures the structuring of assets, delivers comprehensive analyses, offers all necessary pre- and post-trade checks and ensures regulatory compliance.
- Reporting: Etops’ many years of experience in the segments of Family Office, HNWI and UHNWI serve as the basis for comprehensive modern reports in individual designs tailored to the asset manager's corporate identity.
- End-customer access: Trend-setting data visualisation in web browsers, dashboards and on mobile devices, comply with today's customer requirements for constant information availability and thus ensure the future competitiveness of wealth managers.
The platform is constantly being extended, both through in-house developments and through the integration of interesting products from other manufacturers, in order to address special areas such as cross-border issues.
Deployment and development
Etops also provide on-premise installations and even tailor-made solutions, but its offering for the wealth management market is focused on a SaaS-based platform. This guarantees a low-cost introduction to state-of-the-art software, short project times, constant updating, supply of all necessary data and modern standard reporting. Etops therefore has a well-structured subscription model, with extensive options and a relatively high degree of flexibility which increases the attractiveness for independent asset managers, especially compared to traditional solutions.
This article is from The Wealth Mosaic's report on how technology can be used to improve the management of investment portfolios. Access the full report here.
