Wealth Tech Awards 2022: Global winners

Best private bank for digital customer service, global;
Best private bank for culture & vision, global;
Best digital leader - Mariam Rassai, Head of Client Experience and Digital Transformation
BNP Paribas Wealth Management

One of the key differences of the digital journey at BNP Paribas Wealth Management and that of its competitors is that the French bank’s apps are co-designed with the input of clients.

“Our approach since the launch of the CX [client experience] programme has been to closely associate our clients to the design of our digital services,” reveals Vincent Lecomte, CEO of the wealth management unit. 

This is done through multiple routes, from client feedback received through relationship managers and regular surveys, to clients who are happy to be interviewed to share more in-depth expectations, test prototypes, or actually co-design a new feature or service with the bank. 

“Some of these clients may actually be tech entrepreneurs themselves,” says Mr Lecomte, who has been working closely with digital transformation boss Mariam Rassai in changing the bank’s culture. This means the skills of Mr Lecomte – a traditional banker – are combined with those of Ms Rassai, a software engineer by training. “Others may have specific requirements and are happy to co-design the service with us to ensure the service offered is in line with their expectations.”

Senior management at the bank does not however see digitalisation as a separate process in the way that many banks view it. On the contrary, it is seen as working hand-in-hand with the social revolution that is also transforming the attitudes of private banking clients, when it comes to their approach to ethical investment priorities.

“We have developed our own ‘in house’ ESG methodology, designed and monitored by our specialists, that allows us to give a rating on the level of sustainability of our entire recommended universe, in all asset classes, not just bonds, equities, funds, ETFs and structured products but also for private equity and real estate investments,” says Mr Lecomte. “Our objective is to share this information with our clients online and this is already the case for some products.”

This access to private markets, through digital channels, will become an increasingly important competitive advantage, he believes. 

“Private equity and real estate asset classes are highly sought after by our clients and having digital access to these assets is among their main expectations. We have launched an important digital initiative for these type of investments. What is at stake is not only to give digital access to these investments but to design a whole digital experience for every step of the journey, from the early discussions on the investment opportunity with tailor-made advisory, to the subscription, and all subsequent events during the entire life cycle of the private equity fund.” YB

Best digital innovator of the year, global
China Merchants Bank

The main challenge for ambitious private banking firms in China is the integration of digital and offline channels, while meeting compliance requirements laid down by the often hardline China Banking Regulatory Commission. This can be particularly onerous when it comes to allocation of private equity products, which many high net worth investors are now expecting to populate their portfolios.

As well as ensuring the efficiency of the digital communication channel, China Merchants Bank (CMB) has tackled investor education and improved information disclosure procedures to smooth the entire process.

The change was further sped up by the Covid pandemic, which blocked face-to-face contact between relationship managers and their clients, bringing a whole set of new challenges to the bank’s management and operations staff.

Strategists at CMB admit embracing the cultural transformation was often as tricky as plotting the actual course of digital innovation. “Due to different roles, each team has different thoughts about the future and silos often restrict the development of private bank digital transformation,” says Wang Yanrong, general manager of private banking at CMB. In order to combat these choke points, CMB launched innovation competitions “to make everyone realise the importance of digital transformation and get their hands dirty”.

Secondly, a fund for financial technology was established to support digital innovation, followed by a special initiative, aimed at “breaking the silos and cooperating”. In order to unite diverse teams, a “key man” from each team was assigned to each project. According to the bank, this “ensured success by resource guarantee, agile iteration and KPI binding”, helping a new culture take root.

“Breaking the silos and cooperating will now be the consistent theme of the development of private bank digital transformation,” says Mr Wang.

That said, bankers at CMB admit their transformation is still at an early stage and must keep pace with the “fintech revolution” taking place in some of China’s cities, with the skills learned from external firms and partners being put to productive use internally. YB

Best private bank for use of technology, global;
Best private bank for big data analytics and AI, global
Citi Private Bank

Among the key needs highlighted by Citi’s clients and their relationship managers is that of identifying and understanding the context to the masses of news and data collected by the bank. One of the most common questions which bankers receive from their customers in this vein is about what other wealthy families and clients are doing with their money and how their investment activities and portfolios compare.

The innovation Citi has worked on to address this is an analysis of private capital flows. “We saw a valuable way to provide that insight to our family office clients,” says Philip Watson, chief innovation officer at Citi Private Bank. “And whilst we are discrete in protecting the individual identities and activities of clients, looking across a broad range of relationships helps provide transparency on trends. In the wide world of finance, our vast relationship network offers us the ability to share this intelligence with clients in ways that few others can.”  

The bank is also keen to deploy data to help offer clarity and guidance on the relative attractiveness of various investment themes, which can help clients shape their portfolios. This is co-ordinated through Citi’s ‘Theme Machine’ ¬– a crowd sourcing-like platform for investment advice and thought leadership, incorporating views from 400 Citi analysts on stocks and sectors.

“The increasing amount and use of data has helped to refine the quality of content and investment guidance we can offer clients as well as better identify trends and risks,” says Mr Watson. “This approach is beneficial to allow for deep diving into topics, for example we cover sustainable energy as well as sub-sectors like hydro, solar and nuclear allowing us to go deeper than stock picking.” YB 

Best CRM for private banking, global
J.P. Morgan Private Bank

Despite the vast transformation which US banks have undergone through investment in technology, management at J.P. Morgan Private Bank insist technology should enable rather than replace advisers dedicated to customer relationships. 

The bank’s intense conviction that advisers will, for the long-term, remain at the core of the hybrid model, led to the building of the Connect Home platform specifically to service them. “With this set of tools, advisers can deliver a combination of personal attention and modern digital services such as goal-setting, financial planning, market insights, and connections with similarly liked-minded clients with access to the breadth of resources that the entire firm has to offer,” says Andrew Catterall, managing director and head of digital and data transformation at J.P. Morgan International Private Bank.

While CRM tools can help relationship managers become better organised and able to provide more consistent coverage for clients and hopefully enabling them to grow their business, the notion of a “robo solution” sidelining bankers is totally dismissed. “We will continue on our modernisation journey to innovate manual processes, better enabling clients to engage digitally, where beneficial self-serve, and allow client-facing teams to spend more time on scaling,” adds Mr Catterall.

At the same time, senior bankers at the New York City headquarters were quick to realise that some of the existing infrastructure had passed its sell-by date, as advisers struggled to use it effectively. 

“Core technology tools have relatively long lifecycles and are never truly static,” reflects Mr Catterall. “But there comes a point when continuing to make small upgrades to an existing solution is no longer cost effective, nor sufficient for growth to support the ever-changing services our clients expect.”

This emphasis on customer relationship management has not, however, precluded the improvement of portfolio management technology, he adds. “CRM is only part of a much larger balanced book of work, which includes significant investments that enable our investment specialists and clients to build diversified portfolios and optimise their outcomes.” YB

Best private bank for digital portfolio management, global;
Best private bank for digitally empowering RMs, global
UBS

While there is a battle for the soul of private banking being waged at many firms, as their management see-saws between providing investment tools or expensive apps dedicated to improving customer experience, the goal at UBS is altogether a different one. In Zurich, the bank’s management is obsessed with providing access to the all of the bank’s services. This means ensuring a private client buys products from asset management and corporate banking, and that digital channels help facilitate these transactions.

“Client experience and investment returns go hand-in-hand, but our aim goes further,” says a bank spokesman. “As the world’s largest network for private money, we want to provide clients around the world seamless access to our ecosystem for investing with our global expertise, tailored financial services, advice and investable solutions.”

This involves creating personalised investment plans and using technology as a differentiator to bring these plans to clients in a “personalised, relevant, seamless and timely way”.  This can only be achieved, says the bank, by “enabling an interactive, strategic dialogue” with clients.

Central to this, and the increasing menu of investment strategies it requires, is access to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments. UBS has made sustainable investments its preferred solution for clients investing globally and has “fully transitioned” its private pension product offering in Switzerland to sustainable investment solutions, with three-quarters of UBS My Way clients having sustainable investment modules in their portfolios.

“UBS has a clear strategic direction guided by the principle of investing for a better world,” says the spokesman. “A large and growing number of clients attach great importance to ESG in their investments. Our priority is to help clients meet their investment and other objectives, which increasingly reflect sustainable investing.” YB