The demand for cost reduction and process efficiency in a dynamic regulatory environment is ever-present within wealth management. IT and the back office still represents 30% of a private bank’s cost base, not to mention the continuous investments required to provide attractive digital advisory or discretionary management services to Ultra- High-Net-Worth Individual (UHNWI).
On the operational side, the automation of settlement workflows including complex structured product lifecycle management is key to minimising the operational risk and requires a dedicated expert team to guarantee the best quality of service.
We think that private banks can reduce their costs by up to 40% if they follow three simple rules - the mutualisation of investments, standardisation of processes, and a client-driven products roadmap. The end result is a reliable, optimised and shared business model.
With Azqore, private banks take advantage of a shared platform, where the core offering is comprehensive and robust, and innovation on products and services can be enhanced by adding the best of breed of FinTechs.
To name some FinTechs, we work with Wealth Dynamix to provide value add to CRM / CLM activities, and with Evooq / Edgelab for advisory services. We have our own range of digital tools and have embedded RegTech into everything we do.
To complete our shared model value proposition, we also allow our customers to use our platform to leverage each other’s specialities to create an ecosystem cross-selling. Clients can share best practices and leverage each other’s strengths and access a robust offering in, say, private markets, Islamic finance, discretionary portfolio management or anything that one client has a requirement for by subscribing to the same.
To give an example, most private banks want to automate structured product quotations, but they might lack the partner or investment capability to do so. By embedding an automated broker quote process into the platform, we can neatly solve that problem and enhance the bank’s structured products proposition and thus enhance its overall offering.
The concept is that by sharing the platform, a private bank gets the sum of the whole if required!
And going forward, this combination of simplified and shared IT architecture with back-office expertise will support our clients on new ESG / CSR products and services offerings, through enhanced digital tools and facilitate the transition to future innovation (smart contracts).
The concept is simple, by having a robust offering but being open to partnerships and collaboration, our customers get exactly what they want and need in one place. This makes for cost and process efficiency and reduces the headache of having to go out and source third parties themselves - thus upping their satisfaction levels.
This article is from The Wealth Mosaic’s APAC WealthTech Landscape Report 2023. Access the full report here.
