A conference held by the publisher of this news service debated how to approach technology adoption to wring efficiencies and stronger performance for private banks.

It would be nice for wealth management firms to move to a new technology system in a “big bang” step but in reality change tends to be incremental and take a series of stages, a conference organised by this news service heard recently.

“There is a need to do things in phases and [this] cannot be done in one shot...it is a toss-up between big bang and a gradual approach,” said Abhra Roy, lead product line manager, Finacle Wealth Management, Infosys Finacle.

He was speaking at the WealthBriefing GCC Region Summit 2015, held in November at the Mina A’Salam Hotel in Dubai. The theme of the panel discussion was “Overcoming Legacy Systems For Superior Client Reporting". Other speakers on the panel were Siddarth Bandhari, head of solutions, Emirates NBD; Tom Burroughes, group editor of WealthBriefing; Stephen Harris, chief executive of WealthBriefing; Sabila Din, CEO and founder of Din Consulting; and Bruce Weatherill, chair of the panel and chairman of WealthBriefing.

“From a business perspective we cannot delay too long from where the competition is heading,” Bandhari said. He spoke of how advances in client reporting can be a significant differentiator for firms and cement client relationships. “This [area] requires a whole lot of analytics,” he continued.

Din said any examination of client reporting advances must start by noting that change must be driven by clients. She referred to research showing that 75 per cent of clients expect a more engaging experience with a bank.

At this point, WealthBriefing’s Harris pointed out that client reporting and client communication are not the same thing. Top-class client reporting is a transparent, visible indicator of what a firm can do well, and differently, particularly because relationship managers “come and go”. “This is something you can show to the client that this is what we do and how it is. You can demonstrate you are the best in the class.”

WealthBriefing’s Burroughes, drawing on developments from the Swiss banking sector, said high-quality client reporting is one way a sector that has seen some of its old “added value” taken away (the ending of bank secrecy) can appeal to clients.

Another issue is that today, banks continue to be more demanding in requiring information from clients when they are onboarded. If banks are to justify such demands, then clients, when they are onboarded, will demand effective information, he said. 

Asked about trends in aggregation of data and reporting, Din said client demand for aggregated data is clearly evident. 

Roy, referring to some of the issues with aggregated data in banks, says it is not always 100 per cent accurate or updated as rapidly as it could and should be. Referring to the benefits of analytics, he said there needs to be more value-added analytics for the data available to clients. For example, clients should be shown how their portfolios will be affected in different scenarios.

Burroughes noted the large variations in client reporting effectiveness between firms, as highlighted by his experience in trying to elicit reaction times and reporting achievements when the Swiss franc had surged in January 2015. He had called a number of data vendors. Some did not respond to enquiries from WealthBriefing about whether they had been able to rapidly explain the impact of the Swiss franc move; some respondents gave scant data but a few did give detailed explanations of their reaction times.

Harris said that he expected clients would not expect as much transparency in alternative investments as in more “plain vanilla” investments. 

Talking about the quality of banks’ communication with the wider world, Burroughes said, from a journalist’s viewpoint, he sees “enormous” variation in quality, ranging from firms with proactive, helpful and smart public relations, to those who are weak on a number of levels. “It is an area where banks and wealth managers can raise their game.”

Din spoke about the area of “smart customisation” and of work banks and other firms can do in fine-tuning their engagement with clients in a cost-effective and scalable way. “The bank looks at its segments, asks what are its segments and what it can deliver to its customers…you have got to look at different levels of delivery,” she said.

Harris concluded by noting that in wealth management technology, there is a confusing profusion of firms providing tech and solutions to different areas, rather than there being only a handful of businesses catering to a whole range of needs. “They all seem to be very separate and it isn’t always clear who does what.”

Sponsors of the conference were Emirates NBD, Fragomen Worldwide, Finacle, Coutts Trustees, Elegant Resorts, Finance Malta, smartKYC and ProFundCom.