One of the main reasons for our existence at FintekNews is to keep our readers abreast of the sheer scope and magnitude of innovation occurring in financial technology, and prepare you for what lies ahead. So the piece below by Financial Times is pretty much saying what we have said for the last year now. Get on board with fintech or you'll be out of business.
(Cindy Taylor/Publisher)
"Money managers have been criticised for being too slow to adopt technology, putting them at risk of losing market share to digitally savvy businesses seeking to disrupt the investment industry.
According to a poll of 458 asset and wealth managers, shared exclusively with FTfm, only 27 per cent of wealth managers offer robo-advisers, and only 31 per cent use big data.
Asset managers have also been slow to embrace blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies. It is used by just 6 per cent of respondents.
The asset management industry’s need to modernise comes as it is grappling with pressures ranging from tougher regulation to stronger competition. Passive investment vehicles such as index-trackers and exchange traded funds, which allow investors to invest more cheaply, have grown at record-breaking levels since the financial crisis, while customers increasingly expect slick online services.
Amin Rajan, chief executive of Create Research, the consultancy that conducted the poll, said investment companies that failed to modernise their technology systems risked losing business to more digitally clued-up competitors from other industries.
“There is no doubt that mega-indexers and large wealth managers will continue to attract the lion’s share of the new money in motion. Some are developing proprietary robo-platforms. Others are forming alliances with fledgling robo-advisers.
“Their competitors will need to respond in order to survive, at a time when the internet giants are beginning to show an interest in money management.”
Google has previously commissioned research on how it could enter the asset management industry while Facebook recently received regulatory approval from the Central Bank of Ireland allowing it to operate a payments service.
Almost three-quarters of asset and wealth managers said cost pressures would accelerate the pace of digitisation. Fifty-four per cent said differences between themselves and competitors in the fees they charge would prompt them to embrace technology more quickly.
Forty-eight per cent think the rise of passive products will spur them to embrace digital innovation, and the same number think increasing competition from fintech start-ups and internet companies will be a factor.