INTERVIEW: Retail Poised To Snatch Business From Private Banks Lacking Digital Offerings

Josh O'Neill

9 May 2017

Private banks risk losing clients to their retail counterparts if they do not enhance digital offerings, an executive from a global financial technology giant has warned.

Wealth management institutions, generally speaking, are far behind retail banks in the digital race, with some exceptions in the Asia-Pacific and US markets, according to Pierre Bouquieaux, product director at need to bring in new blood and work on how they are going to do this.”

Bouquieaux also suggested advisors spend more time speaking to next-generation wealth holders to hear from the horse's mouth what they actually want in terms of digital offerings.

“I still see a trend of wealth managers saying: 'Why should I spend time talking to his son, grandson etcetera?',” said Bouquieaux. “But, in fact, it is better to talk to the younger generations because they are ultimately the ones who will end up with all the money and become clients sooner than you think. It is essential to know what they want.

“Studies show that transfer of wealth poses a big risk, and managers can easily lose a lot of assets if they do not pay attention to the next generation of clients.”

And as for what these future clients want, Bouquieaux assured digitisation is top of their lists.

However, he added that institutions must not only work to digitally serve the end clients, but also the advisors dealing with them.

“Wealth institutions must make sure they are not just serving the end customer digitally,” said Bouquieaux. “In retail, it is far easier, because the is the key goal: to serve the end client. But in the wealth space, the most fatal mistake would be to copy retail. Firms must take care of their internal staff, I.e advisors, relationship managers, as they also need the proper digital tools.”

It is critical that advisors are equipped with a digital toolkit if they are to successfully and efficiently advise next generation clients, he said.