IA Fintech Member Insights: FFYN
The role of technology in asset management has evolved significantly over the past 20 years. With the pressure on costs and regulation, the industry faces a need to reinvent relationships with Institutional Investors.
Nowadays it is less about Digital Transformation and more about Digital Implementation, which means:
- Deliver the right information, at the right time and to the right investor
- Anticipate investors’ needs
- Go beyond hard facts
1. Deliver the right information, at the right time and to the right investor
Sometimes it seems our personal life benefits from better tools than at work…
If Amazon is able to remind me to buy something at the right moment and send relevant content on my mobile device…. why is it taking so long for Fund Managers to be able to do this?
As Rob Bailey (Axa Investment Managers) said in an interview by Kurtosys “From the way we manage our systems internally, to communicating with our clients, through to how we investigate the companies in which we invest, tech touches every part of the business. As an organisation, we recognise the need to be efficient but also the importance of getting information across in a timely fashion and in a fashion that clients can interpret and decipher. To some extent that’s the challenge our clients have. They get bombarded with information from asset management groups so we’ve had to make our communication with them much more interesting, relevant and timely in order for them to actually want to read our content. From that, we want to engage our clients in debate about good and bad ideas, or where they should and shouldn’t be invested.”
Nevertheless reality kicks back…most funds documents are still sent by emails – consequently Asset Managers lose precious time in manual tasks. Investors can’t keep track of the information and miss always-on tracking of legal changes. Digital Implementation is about automatisation of repetitive tasks, smart alerts & information organisation.
If it weren’t for security & compliance reason, wouldn’t it be great to be able to use Slack and Whatsapp for facilitating communication on funds?
2. Anticipate investors’ needs
Digital Implementation is all about helping Wealth Managers to focus on key issues and foster productive dialogue with Asset Managers.
When a political/social/industrial event impacts a fund, Asset Managers who pro actively contact investors with their assessment will build trust and add value to the relationships. By saving time on fund documents processing, there is the opportunity to enhance those types of services. It isn’t about funds/products …and more about sharing ideas and understanding investment philosophy.
But to do so Asset Managers need to put users at the core of the experience like in traditional B2C companies. Now that is a challenge given methodologies such as Design Thinking, User observations are much more difficult to implement in the b2b financial industry – mainly for cultural and legal reasons. To truly anticipate users’ needs the traditional asset management / investment industry needs to behave more like Fintech and start collaborating for mutual wins.
3. Go beyond hard facts
Digital Implementation is less about screens and more about human-to-human relationships.
It is key to aggregate and organise quantitative and qualitative fund information to allow smooth, direct and personalised interactions between Investors and Asset Managers. The diversity of media to support qualitative content – from video, info graphics to interactive fund documentation will add another angle to help investors to deepen their funds’ understanding and facilitate quick contact to the appropriate fund manager.
We firmly believe the post Digital Transformation Era will be more human – more powerful conversations, stronger relationships thanks to digitalisation of upstream work processes. Thanks to valuable feedback from Investors, Asset Managers will be able to develop more tailored products. At the end Digital Implementation will lead to better products and better returns for investors.
In the future – cut operational cost and stop paying for your data
According to many research (such as the 2018 report from Moody’s Investors Service) Asset managers will cede some control over distribution to big tech companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Alibaba.
Moody’s says user experience has become the primary factor in acquiring and retaining customers, and will be key in determining where and how consumers access their financial needs. Initially, they will likely provide financial services in partnership with financial incumbents to avoid the regulatory burden of manufacturing the products. But big tech firms might even use their online ecosystems to control a larger share of distribution and manufacturing in future….
It is now or never than the Asset Management industry need to do Digital Implementation right!
Within our Fintech “Ffyn”, we worked with BNP Paribas Wealth Management, Maif, Cardif, Generali and many Asset Managers to go beyond Digital Transformation.
We focus on targeted fund information to help anticipating investors’ needs and going beyond pure quantitative facts. Our platform allows investors to connect and follow their funds while making Asset Manager’s life easier as the fund information collection and organisation process is automatised. As a result Investors deliver better on their compliance objectives, as they are able to get in a second the full, up to date picture about their funds. Thus justifying an investment has never been easier. As a result, Ffyn not only cut operational costs but also helps you to stop paying for fund data that is freely available. Through RPA and AI we do the data capture and structure the information for you. So you don’t have to buy free data anymore.
Our originality is to mix Funds Distribution experts like Richard Jones (CEO Ffyn), Jean Devambez (Chairman and working for BNP Paribas) and a team who worked in digital strategy and delivery across many industries: Rodrigo Eliseu (CTO) worked in Telcos & Travel, Julien Ravat (Designer) worked in Health and Stephanie Griffiths (CMO) adds expertise from retail banking, Luxury & FMCG. Therefore we put our users at the core of what we do thanks to design thinking, observation and iterative testing.
We are now officially live, don’t hesitate to request an invite to discover our platform https://ffyn.co/ and start implementation!
Stephanie Griffiths,
CMO @ Ffyn
#Connecttoyourfunds
