Every Chief Executive of every private bank and wealth management firm takes time to reflect on what “good” looks like for their own organisation. Without a doubt, they aspire to have a fully-flexible front office and a core banking system that is both efficient and compliant, capable of optimising the cost-income ratio and maximising advisor and client satisfaction.

Why does this prove elusive for so many?

Usually, this comes down to the way that the firm’s infrastructure has evolved over many years and its approach to implementing a fully functional core banking and client lifecycle management (CLM) platform.

Ad hoc integrations: When a core banking system is supplemented in a piecemeal way, over time, the result can be a mish-mash of tools that are poorly integrated. Even when a bank or wealth manager has carefully selected ‘best in class’ solutions to bolt together, they can end up with twenty to forty systems that don’t work well together, cost too much to maintain, and fail to deliver on compliance. Managing that number of supplier relationships can also become a burden.

In-house builds: When in-house development teams take on the challenge of building their own platform, they may do so believing that they will create a system that is highly customised to meet their individual needs. That may well be the case, but it is not necessarily best for their business. What in-house builds lack is insight into industry-wide best practices and innovation. Their scope is limited to the expertise and knowledge of a handful of individuals who are responsible for delivering value at a low cost. Keyman dependency can become a threat to business continuity, and ongoing maintenance can add much more time and cost than originally anticipated. Generally, industry-wide, Chief Executives have come to realise that IT development is best left to the experts, while the bank’s efforts are best focused on maximising AuM.

What is also missing from these approaches is any kind of orchestration of the various moving parts: for example, the data capture, validation, and streamlining of the processes needed to make the customer experience frictionless and non-intrusive, and to add value throughout the CLM process. When organised effectively, this sequence of events can become the DNA of the onboarding and profiling approach.

The immense pressures that 2020 brought to the financial sector as a whole have resulted in many firms re-evaluating the way they service clients and seeking ways to drive down costs.

Questions being asked are: do we have the right tools for the job? Do we have full visibility of the client lifecycle from end to end, in one single view? Is our service quality suffering due to fragmentation in our infrastructure and remote working?

When considering core banking and CLM, the challenge is that flexibility and low cost are difficult to achieve in parallel.

For most private banks and wealth managers, the answer is to:

– Simplify your technology stack
– Streamline the range of suppliers you work with
– Enhance the usability of tools for advisors
– Implement sophisticated workflows for efficiency in the back office
– Focus on cost reduction in compliance

The way to achieve these outcomes is to work with a provider that is experienced in delivering complete front-to-back office platforms for private banking and wealth management because the needs of this sector are quite different from all others. In doing so, you will be assured that the technology will continuously evolve in an innovative, integrated, and resourceful way that reflects industry best practices.

Only then will you be able to focus on client service and business development, without being distracted by complex, disjointed systems that fail to deliver.

The most competitive and agile firms are those with seamless front-to-back office capabilities that ensure compliance, increase operational efficiency and optimise the cost-income ratio.