Private banks and asset managers are increasingly feeling pressure from a whole new generation of wholesale banking technology, according to...

Private banks and asset managers are increasingly feeling pressure from a whole new generation of wholesale banking technology, according to Professor Michael Mainelli, chief executive of Z/Yen, a London-based consultancy. Professor Mainelli, speaking to an audience of private bankers at a lunch-time seminar hosted by Culliford Edmunds Associates, a recruitment consultancy, believes evermore robust measures of operational excellence in the wholesale banking arena will place pressure on private banks. “Many ‘buy-side’ institutions like private banks and asset managers are frankly not up to scratch when it comes to these levels of operational excellence,” Professor Mainelli said. “But the wholesale banking sector could drop inefficient asset managers if they fail to improve operational efficiency.” Professor Mainelli, who started his career as a rocket scientist, went on to say that private banks need to make better decisions through improved statistical information and market techniques. He also said that pressure to outsource all but the most core expertise will intensify. A discussion developed on the effects of these pressures on private banks, with most participants saying they would accelerate the process of consolidation.