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IIFL Wealth Management in India won Most Innovative Digital Offering at the PBI Global Wealth Awards 2022 for a new WhatsApp for Business tool and its crucial Altiore platform that gives clients access to better data and services. Relationship managers (RMs) can use an Insights platform to pull data for presentation as well. An automatic sync to the firm’s system of record ensures all the new platforms and analytics are updated as a matter of course.

Headquartered in Mumbai, IIFL Wealth Management has more than 900 employees, with a 90% retention rate, and a presence in five [RHIPW1] major global financial hubs, plus 24 locations across India. It is the investment and financial advisor to more than 6,800 families in the ultra and high net worth (U/HNW) segments, with Assets under Management (AuM) per RM of US$160.79 million last year.

The Indian company is a firm believer in a digital first approach. Consequentially, it has designed a new ecosystem and aligned core to more easily deliver a fully data-centric operation to its clients and RMs. For example, Altiore is a new platform with analytics at its heart that gives clients an aggregated view of their entire net worth, along with exhaustive and industry leading data, graphs, reports and so on across the entire portfolio. Information about each asset class and specific advisors is available at the touch of a button. Altiore provides:

A 360-degree view of clients’ portfolios.
Offers data-rich dashboards, to aid faster and more nuanced decision-making.
Monitoring, alert and tracking tools.
Portfolio evaluation capability.

When a client wants to talk to an RM, there is a new WhatsApp for Business tool that can be used to schedule a review, or to answer any queries at any time. It can also be used to request product information, statements and so on, which can be supplied automatically, enabling more productivity internally at IIFL Wealth Management .

The Insights platform can provide data on the go to RMs, bringing them detailed analytics across the spectrum of asset classes held by clients in their portfolios as a way to help them make fast decisions. A scheme’s performance, liquidity within the portfolio, past performance, and so on is also easily accessible. Other benefits of the technology refresh project undertaken at IIFL Wealth Management accrue from enhanced:

Monitoring: the ability to track portfolio guidelines, manage risk dynamically, and deep dive into portfolio hygiene to ensure programmes and pre-stated wishes are being adhered to is now simpler to achieve.

Granularity: Insights, Altiore and the new technology stack at IIFL Wealth Management collectively provide deeper, more relevant analytics. More granular data in each asset class and across the entire IT estate of the firm to the various client or RM end points, enables better service, satisfaction, risk mitigation and opportunity spotting. The improved digital offering allows: o Quicker views of best and worst performing investments across asset classes.
o Easier comparisons for RMs versus nuanced benchmarks.
o Helps relationship teams ensure that clients adhere to their Investment Portfolio Statements and identifies outliers, if required, that may need corrective action.

Look through analysis: on holdings to better understand exposures related to market cap, sector exposures, credit quality of underlying paper, total exposures held directly and indirectly, and many more data points, all helps RMs to assess the risk in portfolios more accurately. Mutual funds, for instance, can be hard to granularly interrogate unless appropriate data is accessible about the underlying instruments. Portfolios can be complex, especially for UNHW families, so providing easier, faster data is always a good thing.

Available liquidity: in a portfolio, including upcoming liquidity, can help clients to better plan deployments in advance, in a more structured manner. Being able to spot opportunities in advance, rather than being reactive, is always preferable.
Data security is in-built into IIFL Wealth Management’s innovative new digital offering, as you would expect with any wealth manager, and confidentiality for its UNHW and indeed all other clients, is a guiding principle of the firm. Technology adoption doesn’t change that basic fact; indeed it can strengthen it.

A good private banking (PB) service is reliant on good well-trained people, products, and delivery. In South Korea, the triumvirate is represented by the PBI Global Wealth Awards 2022 winner in the Outstanding Private Banker-Regional Player category Yoonsil Choi, who won for her qualifications, dedication, and results. In conjunction with colleagues, she also helped the bank attain a Highly Commended (HC) accolade in the Outstanding Private Bank: North Asia category as well.

Yoonsil Choi, in the Walkerhill branch of Hana Bank in South Korea, has been with the private bank (PB) since 2003 and is a certificated financial planner (CFP) and foreign exchange specialist (CFES). Her focus on the family office, serving individual VIP diversification and portfolio management needs, alongside second and third generation clients’ wealth transfer requirements, has delivered stunning results.

She sold US$3.3 million in Living Trusts in 1H 2022. These revocable instruments can accomplish many of the same objectives as a Will in an easier fashion with detail added to the intentions, specifying how assets should be distributed via a focus on trusts, inheritance, and succession planning.

Bancassurance sales worth US$8.4m were also achieved by Yoonsil Choi after she helped solve inheritance issues for a corporate customer’s ownership share and consulted on aggregate taxation on financing income. She managed US$176m in Assets under Management (AuM) as of 31 May 2022.

Overall, Hana’s PB business grew 3.8% last year to reach US$55.5bn, helping it achieve its North Asian commendation at the 32nd PBI Awards. Its Hana Club 1 high-end PB service, operated 2 branches of Club 1 PB Centre at Gang-Nam and Gang-buk region for UHNW clients, contributed significantly, as did an enhanced digital fund platform that comes with a goal-based investing (GBI) algorithm and a portfolio rebalancing advisory service, fund updates and so on. Available on the Hana 1Q mobile banking application, a strategic alliance with the Netmarble online game publisher, enhanced its functionality for millennials and added a ‘Marble of Investment’ game targeting function that enhanced the customer experience (CX). New fund sales via the mobile channel made up 46% of total fund sales last year after the fun digital fund platform was unveiled.

Expansions into art services and an alliance with a local auctioneer also helped grow the business, alongside digital life care services on YouTube explaining wine investing, how to access funeral care services for companion animals, get real life sick care assistance, and so on. Lifestyle communication via the monthly Hana 1QM online webzine www.hana1qm.com, videos and so on also helped ensure customer stickiness, expansion, and loyalty, with segmentation for the 50 to 60 year-old age group a particular aim as this is a core constituency.

Emirates NBD (ENBD) Private Banking (PB) won the Outstanding Non-Resident (NRI)/Global Indians Offering at the Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2022, held virtually in October, for its dual coverage model serving clients including NRIs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and globally via offshore centres in Singapore, London, Mumbai and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), with team members now added to serve NRI clients from the subcontinent based in Africa. New investment products helped ENBD PB secure the win in the NRI category and its wider offering garnered a HC: Highly Commended trophy for Outstanding Private Bank: Middle East for its results and enhanced digital and family offering.

Emirates NBD Private Banking has deepened its relationship with the family offices of renowned UAE families and on-boarded new ultra and high-net worth individuals (U/HNWIs) to achieve a 100 per cent year-onyear (YoY) growth in sourcing during the first quarter of 2022, as part of its focus on higher value customers and organic growth.

It has not forgotten its other customers, however, with digital tools, advice and services on tablets, mobiles and voice ensuring 58 per cent of customers were digitally active last year, up 5 per cent YoY. Digitalisation was further evidenced by 686 webinar attendees, up 72 per cent YoY, signing up to hear ENBD’s first quarter advisory message this year that a ‘tactically reactive’ investment approach was best for 2022 rather than a proactive one. This was due to the accurately predicted volatile year coupled with war, rising interest rates, Covid-19 induced supply chain issues still evident, rising oil prices, currency volatility and other factors all impacting economic performance.

Revenues are 8 per cent ahead of last year in 2022 for ENBD PB and fee income ratios are continuing their upward curve, which allied to a best-in-class cost to income ratio has delivered strong financial results and a PBI Awards commendation in the Middle-East. New launches in recent years, such as the Emirates Signature Funds of Funds, have also contributed to its success.

Comprehensive Non-Resident Indian service

The NRI segment, which represent 60 per cent of the large expatriate population in the UAE, was especially well served by ENBD PB, ensuring its win in that category. The addition of two new team members covering Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda meant that client numbers in East Africa have gone up considerably, now representing 30 per cent of the client base. They join a Middle-East and North Africa (Mena) team of 14 RMs and three investment advisors, as part of ENBD PB’s Global South Asian Business (GSAB) unit.

Support from the chief investment office (CIO) team and execution desks in Dubai and Singapore, which can access listed capital markets and over-the-counter (OTC) instruments globally via specialist traders familiar with dark pools of liquidity and algorithmic trading, further bulks out the comprehensive NRI offering. London adds further investment and offshore options, with Jersey providing next generation wealth transfer and trust funds, allied to the local services in the three Saudi Arabia offices in Jeddah, Riyadh, and Khobar. The Mumbai head office back in India offers high yield deposit, transfer and other options to those that want to repatriate money.

All RMs and advisors are trained and certified via the online Candriam Academy to offer sustainable and responsible investment options. To address GSAB clients’ preference towards income generating fixed income vehicles, ENBD PB broadened its investment products to include specific mutual funds and bonds, with some allocation into equities. For example, fixed income mutual funds and leveraged deposits in partnership with select Indian banks have proved popular, providing an enhanced AED/USD currency-based return to NRI clients. For those with aggressive investment risk profiles, a derivatives trading platform is available, although present volatility means this is only for the brave.

Tailored wealth plans and trust options complete the package, with brokerage, asset management, advisory and ancillary services all rolled together to offer outstanding private banking. A Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 65 in 2022 proves its customers are happy.

Quintet Private Bank has won two Highly Commended awards at the Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2022 in the Outstanding Global Private Bank: Europe category and Best Bank for Sustainability and ESG leadership.

Headquartered in Luxembourg the boutique wealth manager operates in 50 European cities. Quintet serves wealthy individuals and their families, as well as a broad range of institutional and professional clients, including family offices, foundations, and external asset managers.

Its presence in Europe and continuing growth were noteworthy with total group income rising to €460.8 million (US$456.54m) last year, up 3% compared to €447m (US$442.86m) in 2020. Revenue growth rose to €348m (US$344.78m), an 11% increase compared to 2020, supported by higher fees and increased lending, which reached €4.5 billion (US$4.46bn), up 25%.

As of 31 December 2021, Quintet’s total client assets stood at €96.6bn (US$95.7bn), up 14% from the end of 2020, to stand at their highest level in more than a decade.

Sustainable Assets under Management (AuM) rose to €11.7bn (US$11.59bn) at the end of last year, nearly doubling from €5.9bn (US$5.84bn) at the end of 2020, helped by a series of partnerships, such as with German asset manager DWS, where Quintet acted as the seed investor unveiling in June 2021 two Xtrackers Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). These give investors access to the rapidly growing market for green corporate bonds and are deployed by Quintet in discretionary portfolios, aligning with its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) agenda. Other partners include:

Robeco: A Dutch asset manager with whom Quintet was the exclusive launch partner on the unveiling of RobecoSAM US Green Bonds. These provide diversified exposure to the US green bond market, fuelling positive environmental impacts, while aiming to provide long-term capital growth to clients. €125m (US$123.8m) was initially committed.

Amundi: Quintet made €200m (US$198.2m) in client commitments to their Emerging Markets (EM) Green Bond, an offshoot of the asset manager’s Amundi Planet Emerging Green One, the world’s first EM only targeted green-bond, which was unveiled with the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. Both investments were deployed in Quintet discretionary portfolios.

In Q1 2022, Quintet Earth was launched. This multi-asset, climate-neutral investment fund was launched with €280m (US$277.4m) in assets. It combines equal exposure to green bonds and low-carbon equities, offsetting associated carbon emissions through the purchase of carbon credits associated with reforestation activities – thereby supporting sustainable development and contributing towards the ESG strategy. The promise is to generate competitive long-term, risk-adjusted returns, while simultaneously combating climate change.

A partnership with The Royal Mint in the UK to introduce the use of recycled gold in an exchange-traded commodity instrument further demonstrates Quintet’s commitment to sustainability.

Winner: RBC WM – North American base wins award & global operation recognised

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) Wealth Management (WM) serves affluent and ultra / high net worth individuals (U/HNWIs) from its key operational hubs in Canada, the US, British Isles and Asia, garnering it a Highly Commended nod in the Outstanding Global Private Bank: Global category from the judges at the Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2022, and a Winner trophy in the Outstanding Global Private Bank: North America category. It was also Highly Commended for providing the Most Innovative Digital Offering.

RBC WM provides a full suite of banking, investment, trust, and other wealth management solutions to affluent, HNW and UHNW investors. RBC WM also includes its asset management arm RBC Global Asset Management (GAM), which provides investment products and services to institutional and individual clients directly and via RBC and third-party distributors.

As of Q2 2022, RBC WM has over C$1.3 trillion (US$989.76bn) of Assets under Administration (AUA) and C$950 billion (US$723.29bn) of Assets under Management (AuM), plus over 5,500 financial consultants, advisors, private bankers, and trust officers in its network, which has delivered revenue of C$13.3 billion (US$10.13bn) in FY2021, up 9.6% from a year earlier.

As Canada’s largest financial institution, with 89,000+ employees serving more than 17 million clients when you include the retail bank which provides an effective WM funnel, it is natural that its ‘home’ North American business is particularly strong. RBC GAM alone is:
The largest Canada-based asset manager, with C$560.8 billion (US$426.97bn) in client AuM globally.

A top performing investment firm, with approximately 78% of AuM outperforming the benchmark on a 3-year basis.
In possession of a balanced investor asset mix, comprising of 53% retail and 47% institutional client assets.
Largest retail fund company in Canada: with 16.1% of the all-in market share, which expands to 32.1% if only bank-affiliated fund companies are included
The RBC Dominion Securities Inc (DS) full-service brokerage business is the Canadian market leader, with approximately 26% market share and C$445 billion (US$338.80bn) in AUA from over 300,000 households.

The RBC Private Banking (PB) business is also a Canadian market leader, possessing the number one position amongst the Big 5 Canadian banks for:
#1 Revenue market share
#1 Deposit balance market share
#1 Loan balance market share

RBC WM Services (WMS) is a group of 200+ highly accredited wealth planning professionals consisting of will & estate consultants, financial planning specialists and business owner planning specialists. WMS professionals support advisors in RBC WM across Canada by providing strategies, advice and solutions to address the often complex planning needs of HNW and UHNW clients, including their families and businesses. WMS is the largest team of wealth planning professionals in Canada.

In the US, the bank’s wealth management (USWM) unit is the seventh largest full-service wealth advisory firm in the country as measured by its number of advisors (2,100) in 178 branches across 42 States, serving 340,000 households. It’s the sixth largest by AUA, reaching US$542bn in 2021.

City National Bank (CNB) is the US private and commercial bank serving U/HNWIs and commercial clients. It offers a broad range of lending, deposit, cash management, international banking, equipment financing, wealth management and other products and services. CNB has opened new offices in New York, D.C., and other East Coast locations to drive growth in the important US marketplace and is targeting the entertainment ecosystem and productivity and efficiency gains via expanded digital capabilities to help it expand further. The Capital Markets team can help here too.

Commendation: Digital offering

RBC WM has made significant investments in its digital and data capabilities in recent years, winning it a further Highly Commended certificate in the Most Innovative Digital Offering category at the PBI Global Wealth Awards 2022. Its client and advisor-facing digital tools, such as a Meeting Scheduler that integrates with calendars to ease and automate the booking of virtual, in-person or phone meetings, were particularly noteworthy. The Scheduler automated 13,000 meetings last year, cutting admin tasks and time. RBC WM has also launched:

Redesigned corporate websites: focusing on accessibility and mobile-first design that provides a consistent brand experience while addressing regional needs and goals.

Improved CX & WHO: The Wealth Management Online portal has been enhanced to provide a better customer experience (CX) as part of a wider company-wide digital overhaul. Clients can now securely and more easily view their entire portfolio in one place and access research, analysis, transfer funds, collaborate with an advisor, and so on.

Digitally enabled AOS: Account Opening and Servicing capabilities have been enhanced for clients and advisors that need on-boarding.

Artie: free online executor tools to help existing and potential executors who are looking for education, guidance and support in the estate settlement process.

In an age of constant digital change and innovation, Lombard International Assurance understands that the needs of wealth advisers serving ultra and high net worth (U/HNW) clients continue to evolve. Focused on driving innovation and efficiency in every aspect of its business, Lombard International Assurance strives to lead the industry when it comes to developing and enhancing the service and solutions their stakeholders have come to expect over the past 30+ years.

The integration of technology into key processes sits at the heart of this approach, with Lombard International Assurance’s digital servicing platform, “Connect”, which delivers online, secure and compliant policy management and servicing. Such an approach is fundamental in successfully delivering operational excellence, as well as upgraded accessibility for partners and clients across all markets the Company serves.

Its strategy and efforts won the Most Effective Investment Service Offering at the Private Banker International Global Wealth Awards 2022.

Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Luxembourg, Lombard International Assurance provides customised cross-border insurance-based wealth, estate, and succession planning solutions for U/HNW individuals, families, and institutions. The Company partners with clients’ trusted advisors, including private banks, family offices, tax lawyers, investment managers, and wealth planners providing a platform to protect, grow and pass on assets. Business relationships with over 1,000+ asset managers and 200+ custodian banks are active, and a range of insurance-based wealth solutions are available across a diverse set of asset classes, spanning life and wealth cover, liquidity and long-term legacy planning options and non-traditional assets.

The last few years have seen a significant increase in the complexity that wealthy individuals and families face as they navigate an uncertain global economy as well as an evolving suite of asset classes. Driven by the unpredictable geopolitical environment, changing market dynamics and macroeconomic instability, Lombard International Assurance continues to adapt its offering to help U/HNW families and their advisers navigate these complexities.

Whilst U/HNW families re-evaluate their existing planning, with more than $15 trillion in wealth set to transition globally by 2030[1], planning early is all the more important. Asset protection, portfolio diversification and bespoke wealth planning are becoming much more important criteria. Furthermore, with wealth structuring and intergenerational planning becoming even more multifaceted, wealth professionals need to ensure they are well equipped and have the necessary resources to manage their clients’ evolving needs and expectations.

Lombard International Assurance succeeds in providing flexibility and choice to partners and clients, and delivers tailored wealth solutions rooted in deep local knowledge, powered by an internationally diverse team and digitalisation.

Providing consistency in its service and value proposition across all operational markets is key, and this is achieved through the implementation of a robust, agile, and holistic digital proposition. Not only does it enhance servicing capabilities and operational efficiency, but also enables Lombard International Assurance to create further reliability by streamlining and, where possible, integrating its own systems with those of its partners. From a business development perspective, digital onboarding and servicing platforms, coupled with the availability of online transaction tools, represent important sustainable growth levers, in line with business partner requirements and expectations.

Lombard International Assurance’s approach to sustainably future-proofing its digital infrastructure is supported by three key pillars. Firstly, it ensures that its digital solutions enables its own talented international team of experts to focus their attention on value adding activities, rather than manual processes. Secondly, the solutions need to simplify the complex by continuing to invest in product development, technology and operations. Finally, they must also be a catalyst for greater compatibility and integration with current and future stakeholders.

Additionally, Lombard International Assurance has invested time and resource focusing on its people by developing a clear employee value proposition based upon its values and core purpose, covering recruitment, career development and progression to learning, to having fun at work and beyond. Attracting, retaining and nurturing talent enables the Company to further develop trust with partners, clients and colleagues, ultimately enabling Lombard International Assurance to grasp the opportunities ahead, not only today but into the tomorrow.

A Generational Shift: Family Wealth Transfer Report 2019

Riyad Bank won Outstanding Private Bank for Growth Strategy at the virtual Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2022 for the way it is targeting female and NextGen HNWI clients in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and providing appropriate relationship manager training to deliver on its strategy, garnering it a Highly Commended accolade for its Outstanding RM Training & Development Programme.

Women are estimated to control around a third of the world’s total private wealth, according to Riyad Bank’s analysis and they are also inclined towards greater loyalty and advocacy of their trusted financial advisors. That is why females are a key part of Riyad Bank’s private banking client acquisition and retention strategy in KSA, reflecting the fact that global wealth demographics have been going through seismic shifts in recent times.

The rise of UHNW millennials, either inheriting or earning wealth in the tech or other traditional and emerging sectors, is equally as significant and forms another key part of Riyad’s growth plans.

Building relationships with this current generation of millennials, and with their children, will be crucial as the population in KSA is noticeably young. The growth strategy also includes:

Single Family Offices (SFO): This consolidated service caters for Riyad’s wealthiest clients through providing exceptional wealth management offering with a broad range of solutions and capabilities.

International Reach: Riyad Bank is utilizing its international branches in London, USA and Singapore to stay close to its UHNWI clients and provide the unique experience is aspired by them.

ICICI Securities in India won Outstanding Wealth Management Service for the Affluent at the virtual Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2022 for the way it personalises and segments its client base to better serve their needs at scale and offers curated solutions.

ICICI Securities is an integrated financial services firm that offers wealth management (WM), investment banking and equity broking services within India’s ICICI Group. The home-grown private wealth unit was set up in 2010 to cater to the growing segment of ultra and high net worth individuals (U / HNWI) and affluent people in India.

The private wealth management unit serves more than INR 2.7 trillion assets spread across 60,000+ UHNI clients that is served by a strong team of 450+ specialists that includes senior private bankers, product, advisory, service and family office team members.

ICICI Securities WM seeks to attract both mass affluent as well as HNI customers. This creates two different ecosystems one serving the need of the young affluent customers by investing in technology to automate and personalise its service to mass affluent –including lifestage solutions, passive investments, loans and insurance; and the other delving into a more nuanced / bespoke solution for U/HNWIs including family office, retirement, alternate investments.

Also important is the use of digital tools, data analytics, client experiences, such as:
Gamification, of goal-based investment tools, which offer unique user engagements. This is allied to social investing alerts for millennials and online learning tools

Young Millennials also get a low-cost transaction platform that offers easy to consume actioning and research tools, all communication and services to millennials and micro-segmented U/HNWIs rely on smart data analytics engine installed by ICICI Securities. This drives personalisation and enhances the customer experience (CX). Clients only see content, product and service options that is relevant to them. Profiles might include a business owner, salaried worker, self-employed professional, retiree, non-resident Indian (NRI), active trader etc. who are offered equities, fixed income, alternates, global investments basis their asset allocation framework. Loans and insurance solutions are also offered as appropriate – via the most relevant channel – be that a website, app, digital assistant, or RM / financial advisor (see figure 1).

Figure 1: ICICI Securities hyper-personalisation process.

Source: ICICI Securities entry into the PBI Global Wealth Awards 2022.

The online brokerage service offers a ‘one-click’ risk-based and thematic mutual fund portfolio solution as well that offers:
Quick online execution.
Risk based allocations.
Holistic portfolio investment approaches and well-researched mutual fund options.

The global investment platform provides seamless on-boarding without physical documents via the online account opening ICICIdirect service. The alliances with interactive brokers give access to six major overseas markets, including the USA. Through this platform, it offers curated equity portfolios from the likes of WisdomTree, State Street Global Advisors and other such fund managers.

They also offer 25+ curated equity baskets called “Masters of the Street” by India’s leading investment advisors.

A comprehensive and aggregated portfolio analysis tool ensures:

A complete overview of a client’s portfolio across multiple advisors / brokers / wealth managers.
Real-time valuation of direct equity and day-end valuations of the remaining portfolio.
A function to easily upload or delete multiple portfolios & track their performance.
Portfolio analysis is digitally accessible at various levels and recommendations can flow accordingly.

All of this technology and automation is delivered at a low subscription fee, which is important in the mass affluent sector. An ‘investonomics’ digital engagement microsite offers virtual events, analytics, and other touchpoints to drive engagement.

The LIFEY goal-based investment and retirement solution is also noteworthy for its algorithm-driven portfolio creation approach, with built-in risk profiling and requirements capturing during on-boarding, allied to its solution mapping capabilities. This drives appropriate execution, tracking and recommendation engines, with a failsafe review procedure and course-correction capabilities to ensure appropriate life stage services.

They also have an exclusive family office to cater to Ultra High Net Worth clients. It provides niche as well as customized solutions to cater to the needs of the UHNI. These cover the entire breadth of the investment, protection and lending needs of the client. Offerings include direct equity solutions through various platforms like mutual funds, portfolio management services and Alternative Investment funds, debt solutions through direct corporate bonds, mutual funds as well as credit offerings through AIF’s. Offerings also include private equity offerings both through direct deals as well as fund offerings.

ISEC also runs portfolio management solutions for clients that have various strategies like smart beta, multi asset portfolios and active equity management on a discretionary and non-discretionary mode.

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) was Highly Commended (HC) in the Outstanding Private Bank: Southeast Asia category at the 32nd Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2022, held on 6 October, for its new digital platform and future plans.

SCB’s vision is to become a major digital platform service provider in Thailand under its planned new parent, SCB X, as well as a Southeast Asian and wider regional financial tech conglomerate by 2025, offering its processing power to others and services via a wide variety of partners. This is in-line with the financial services (FS) trend towards the usage of open application programming interfaces (APIs) that make data exchange and multiple service provision much easier.

Making the private banker’s life easier by giving them greater access to fast, diverse information is a key requirement too, as part of SCB’s technological and organisational overhaul, which has three key over-arching strategic pillars. Any changes or IT updates must deliver:

Personalisation: must be front and centre for all things whether it is data, automated advisory insights, log-on, face-to-face, or particular services, such as asset allocations that use in-house experts for discretionary portfolio management (DPM) on behalf of clients in-line with their pre-stated risk appetite and goals. Whatever SCB delivers must be personalised. That requires integration and alignment of IT systems, flexible core infrastructures, training for the staff and so on.

Extensive solutions with a value-adding advisory platform: A full suite of digital tools and data that can flow across the organisation, and to external partners in a secure way, for staff and clients is essential to be able to offer the wealth creation and growth options SCB wants to. For example, SCB’s open IT architecture that can handle open API-enabled calls for data enables 21 local asset management companies, including SCB Asset Management, to offer a wide variety of offshore mutual funds, both in equity and fixed income. Structured and other non-traditional products can also now be more easily added to its technology stack as well.

Seamless journey with full access to group wide services: this delivers the enhanced customer experience (CX) that SCB deems as essential for its ultra and high net worth (U/HNW) clients in Thailand and elsewhere, who are often time poor so need fast, easy, and connected services from on-boarding to advice, investment, and other actions.

Having an open IT architecture helps provide a seamless good CX. Staff empowerment is vital too. SCB’s has provided training for Private Bankers that use the new in-house wPlan platform capabilities in order to deliver personalised insights, products, and services. Apart from that, variety of in-house training courses are exclusively developed for staffs. The bank has also invested in other new digital service and data platforms, such as its Easy Invest solution, and continues to do so in pursuit of its vision for the future.

Quintet Private Bank was Highly Commended in the Outstanding Global Private Bank: Europe category at the 31st annual staging of the Private Banker International (PBI) Global Wealth Awards 2021, held virtually on 8 October due to Covid-19. The bank has used new funding to acquire and consolidate its European-based global wealth management (WM) and investment offering, delivering a 16% uptick in revenues last year to EUR513 million (US$594.1m) despite the pandemic.

Quintet Private Bank, headquartered in Luxembourg, operates in 50 European cities. It caters to wealthy individuals and families, as well as a broad range of institutional and professional clients, including family offices, foundations and external asset managers.

Founded in 1949, it rebranded last year as it entered new markets and recruited 350 staff to its 2,000 rollcall, tapping new funding – including the placement of EUR125 million (US$146m) in AT1 notes – in order to pursue growth, and attracting higher fees and commission income to reward its efforts. Total client assets rose to EUR85 billion (US$98.4 bn) as of 31 December 2020, up from EUR81.5 billion at the end of 2019.

Expansion included via the acquisition of Bank am Bellevue in Zurich to form Quintet Switzerland. Staff numbers doubled to 80 by year end, as the newcomer sought to carve out a niche by offering a comprehensive advisory approach and the agility of a relatively small player. This is allied to state-of-the art asset allocation and truly open architecture that allows multi-booking capabilities and true cross-border capabilities.

In October 2020, Quintet opened a branch in Copenhagen: Quintet Danmark, which is focused on meeting the long-term wealth management needs of local individuals and their families. It combines a highly personalized approach with independent advice and open-architecture investment solutions. Similarly, it has doubled staff numbers, to 10 in this case. It supports its activities via alignment with the Nordics Desk in Luxembourg.

It combines a highly personalized approach with independent advice and open-architecture investment solutions.

Consolidating operations and raising brand awareness are among its key aims. In December last year, for instance, Quintet finalized the merger of its EU-based subsidiaries, forming a single business unit known as ‘Quintet Europe’. This reduces organizational complexity and increases efficiency, allowing clients to benefit from shorter lines of communication, more rapid decision-making, and faster service. A one-bank approach is better than a lot of smaller subsidiaries.

A single House View has been implemented whereby Quintet’s chief investment officer (CIO) articulates the firm’s view about how clients should be invested, dependent on their portfolio and risk appetite. The Counterpoint publication and Solutions offer clients specific ideas about how to invest their wealth in a portfolio.

Sustainable investment is a priority too and should be the default choice in the long-term as the world moves towards net carbon zero. Investing in companies that are better prepared for the impact on their business of climate change can improve performance. Those that have built resiliency and manage the associated risks more carefully are likely to offer an improved risk/reward ratio to investors.