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Chris Handley
IT Strategy and Change Director, Rathbones Group Plc
Wealth managers have never been early adopters in the traditional sense of the adoption curve. But I think we’ve all realised that we need to embrace the efficiencies that come with it to stay relevant and, ultimately, stay in business.
How significant is the threat from fintech companies, and what can Rathbones do about it?
I think fintech companies like roboadvisors are catering to different clients, so I don't see them as an immediate direct threat to what established wealth managers like Rathbones are doing.
With these companies, you pay a nominal entry rate, set your risk level and start investing. Now, that's great and we need to get everybody more financially astute but, ultimately, it’s a very different client to those we cater for.
However, there is a lot we can learn from fintechs, for example, automating operational and back-end processes. Digitising these would be a massive benefit for Rathbones and other organisations that are dealing with the legacy of ageing technology and the history that comes along with that. We review the technology that fintechs are creating and think about how we can use it to make our own business more efficient, through process automation and utilising end-to-end solution providers.
Wealth managers have never been early adopters in the traditional sense of the adoption curve. But we've all realised that we must embrace the efficiencies to stay relevant and, ultimately, stay in business.
Have you seen an increase in client demand for fully digital services?
Clients are increasingly asking for improved digital services. They want to access a mobile application, a website and see the state of their accounts with Rathbones. They also want to look at additional services: research papers and quarterly valuation packs. And they want to consume that information in a digital way.
However, we aren’t seeing a huge digital only push. These digital services are very much an augmentation of clients' human relationships with their investment managers. Rather than fully digital services, we are seeing a demand for a blended human-digital experience, where clients can speak to a real human about important matters and digitally consume more generic information.
There are several capability requirements for undergoing this process of digital transformation, the most obvious of which is onboarding. This is largely a data issue as you need to get to know the client and they’ve got to provide a lot of information. The process of taking them from a prospect through to a client needs to be quick and seamless, and Rathbones is working to make it as efficient as possible.
Rather than fully digital services, we are seeing a demand for a blended human-digital experience, where clients can speak to a real human about important matters and consume more generic information in a digital way.
Data and analytics is not only a key part of our technology roadmap, but of our business strategy. Understanding clients better is crucial for refining the services that add value to clients.
How do you foresee using data and analytics to drive decision-making and the customer experience in particular?
Data and analytics is not only a key part of our technology roadmap, but of our business strategy. Understanding clients better is crucial for refining the services that add value to clients.
We are building a new data management strategy that is moving us away from what we refer to as a defensive data management strategy. This is where we protect our client data and meet regulatory needs, but don’t use it beyond that. Instead, we’re moving to what we refer to as an offensive data management strategy.
In our new strategy, the data is just as protected as in the defensive strategy, but we now use it to drive analytics. This means that we get information and analytics back from the data to make unbiased business decisions. So, rather than just being subjective, we look at what processes, technology and initiatives the data is telling us that we should be focusing on, which will in turn tell us how best to serve our clients.
About Rathbones Group Plc
Rathbones Group Plc (Rathbones), through its subsidiaries, is one of the UK’s leading providers of investment management services for individuals, charities and professional advisers. This includes discretionary investment management, unit trusts, tax planning, trust and company management, financial planning and banking services. Rathbones manages £60.9 billion of assets (as at 31 March 2023). Rathbones has over 2,100 people in 15 UK locations and Jersey.
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