Solving the 4 Key Challenges Facing Asset Managers

The asset management community has gone through substantial changes over the last number of years.

There are four key challenges that currently face all asset management firms across each region. These include:

1. Managing existing and new regulations;
2. Increased global market volatility;
3. The growing importance of creating service differentiation and sustainable competitive advantage;
4. Pressure on fees and the shifting expectations of clients who demand a better client experience and day-to-day service.

All of these conspire to make asset management a completely different business to what it was 10 or even 5 years ago.

Client Experience is Not Where It Should Be; Client Onboarding is a Culprit

Client experience is fast becoming a major source of competitive advantage as asset managers look to achieve higher margins and market share. However, the client experience is clearly not where it should be and asset managers are continually hampered by operational inefficiencies, manual and outdated onboarding processes and the use of older legacy systems.

It is true to say that, these days, clients do have higher expectations, however, they are not asking for anything too radical or over the top. Instead, all clients want are:

• A faster and smoother client onboarding experience;
• For their asset manager to re-use client data and documentation that they’ve already submitted instead of having to submit this information multiple times;
• A more convenient and digital way to communicate with their asset manager.

Client onboarding is a big culprit in asset managers’ inability to deliver a better client experience. And the reason is simple. Despite huge advances in technology, client onboarding remains very manual for most asset managers. Numerous forms, multiple signatures and duplicated information requests are laborious and time-consuming for both the client and the organization. Human error in transferring data is a huge variable: mistakes and errors creep in from time-to-time and, in addition to the potential for errors, there’s a substantial amount of duplication; frustrating for clients and labor-intensive for the institution.

In addition to the data collection process, information storage can be flawed. Often stored in multiple locations, client data is very often requested and collected from client’s multiple times due to the inability to locate and re-use it. This lengthens the time it takes to onboard the client (help them pass through regulatory approvals and collect all the data and documentation required to evidence this process) and seriously impedes the ability to deliver a better client experience.

Automating Client Onboarding for A Better Client Experience

Automating and digitalizing client onboarding processes are key to making the asset management client experience faster and smoother. This involves delivering a more efficient client onboarding process that:

• centralizes client data and documentation, enabling asset managers to re-use these attributes for new regulatory obligations or new product onboarding etc.
• automatically consumes new information from a myriad of data providers and utilities through advanced APIs.
• uses secure, digital channels to encourage clients to submit new or updated information at their convenience and automatically processes and stores this information against the client record.
• implements a global, single KYC policy that ensures a consistently applied approach to all regulations, both global and local, across AML/KYC, tax compliance and OTC derivatives.
• deploys advanced workflows and new technologies such as RPA and Machine Learning to expedite processes that involve large volumes of data or repetitive processes.

By automating client onboarding, compliance and client data management, asset managers can eradicate human error resulting from manual processes, remove regulatory interpretation and hasten client onboarding for better business results and happier clients.