Set up in 1986, the Swiss Association of Asset Managers (SAAM) aims to enhance the industry’s reputation and foster growth and recognition of the profession of independent asset managers. The functions of the association lie in self-regulation and investor protection. Key to this is the provision of training and guidance to members when it comes to regulation, technology and other areas of interest.

Independent asset managers in Switzerland manage assets of around CHF500 billion or about one sixth of all assets held in custody in Switzerland. And with something like 1,800 members out of 2,200 or so possible members, and 45% of the independent asset management community, its reach is good.

“One of our biggest challenges is to service a group that is not at all homogenous,” says Serge Pavoncello, Chairman of the VSV-ASG/SAAM. “There are members that are quite large and some that have only one person. I would say the majority of our members sit somewhere in between; about 80% of members have about five people there,” he says.

“The thing that we all have in common is that we work directly for our clients, we are not bound by a bank culture or brand and we exist to directly serve our end client. Our only goal is to look after the client,” says Pavoncello.

And looking after the client extends beyond portfolio management. Indeed, one of the biggest growth areas has been around the fact that clients simply do not have time to take care of the day to day. “This is things like making sure that the bills are paid on time, that the cleaners have been and that the car is serviced or the school fees are paid. It’s also looking after the real estate that they own and any building or renovation projects.

“Many of our clients are also entrepreneurs and so they have their business needs, raising finance, merging or acquiring, etc. Finally, the portfolio management and all that that entails is required,” says Pavoncello.

“People are intelligent, but they are also busy and this type of thing is not their main focus. It’s important to remember that this is all about the personal relationship and needing to look after someone, that is the raison d’etre, not a bank’s bottom line,” he says.

No matter what the role or size of the member though the SAAM’s advocacy role is clear. “We are fully focused on representing the interests of the industry. We advocate and represent our industry at the highest level; with FINMA, the authorities and politicians and with privileged contacts with other actors in the financial centre – in particular with the banks,” says Pavoncello. “We give independent asset managers a voice and the means to communicate with government and regulatory authorities and with each other,” he adds.

Regulation
Pavoncello says that the wave of regulation that affected asset managers in the wake of the 2008 crisis has largely been completed. Attention is now on the revision of the CISA and the AMLA, which are in progress. “A key pillar of our offering is to help our members with this. We have created sales and contract documents that our members can then adapt to their own organization. This sort of thing is always a massive learning curve and we seek to find out what the regulator is demanding in the first place, how that can be applied on a practical level and what the best way of doing that would be for our members. We offer concrete and practical help and support,” he says.

“In fact, one of our key mission statements is to make sure that our members know what they need to do in terms of regulation and are able to put in place the systems and solutions to be able to adopt new regulation. This is a massive task and we are trying to use what is available to us and identify what we also need to have and do,” he says.

Technology
Other strategic axes of the association concern the advance of new technologies in the industry. Questions about harmonization, standardization and data portability are currently at the centre of attention with regards to an innovative, sustainable and networked financial centre.

“There have been massive changes that have been enabled by the evolution of IT. Being able to store data has been a huge game changer and the development of solutions that solve specific pain points and an ecosystem approach has been the other,” he says.

Previous to this he explains that the options were either to build something in-house or use something that was designed for big banks and try to adopt it. “The development of an ecosystem approach to technology has really brought about flexibility,” adds Pavoncello.

And happily, take up rates and adoption are good. “At the end of the day our clients are entrepreneurs; they are good at identifying opportunities, including those brought about by strategic IT solutions. They embrace technology because they can see the improvements it brings and the value that it adds. They essentially want their independent asset manager to be competent in the things that it does and technology is a key enabler of that. It provides an opportunity to do things better so why not take advantage of that,” he questions.

In terms of the practical and functional advantages and being able to access and integrate data and information that relates to the investment portfolio and access reports and so forth, there is the need to be able to auto-manage the functions of the portfolio so to do all the admin and custody, the reporting and the audit trail.

Lastly there is the CRM space where all the client data and the AML and KYC functions are done. “This all needs to be embedded and data needs to be properly gathered and shared where appropriate. There is also a huge demand for portals that can store permissions and share documentation in a way that is easy, accessible and most importantly secure. This is really coming to the fore as the concierge aspect of the service grows but there is the need to manage all of this is a secure way”.

"Ultimately we need to service and look after our clients sensibly and intelligently – technology is a key enabler of that and we would be foolish to forget that,” Pavoncello says.

This article was part of The Wealth Mosaic's Swiss WealthTech Landscape Report (2021). Access the full report here.