IMAS Looks Into the Future for Asset Managers
Singapore's asset management industry needs to chart its journey of change in an era of digital disruption and a growing pool of wealth sitting with the young.
In Asia, a rapidly growing wealth pool is sitting with the younger and more digitally savvy generations. The millennial generation thrives on the convenience of global connectivity and demands the immediacy of service offerings.
«When it comes to investing, they are more cognizant of cost comparisons and would want to express their individual preferences and their responsibility towards world issues,» said Susan Soh, chair of the Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS), who was speaking at Thursday's joint IMAS-Bloomberg Investment Conference 2019 in Singapore.
Arrival of Open Banking
As governments and regulators in Asia are recalibrating their approaches to support a more favorable environment around digital technology and fintech solutions, new channels of distribution have sprouted across Asia. There is also the potential arrival of open banking, already announced in Hong Kong and Singapore, with Australia, Japan and South Korea expected to follow.
«This will envision an environment where open flows of data permitted by customers can be aggregated, which would, in turn, lead to increased competition, whilst bringing about more efficient and better-integrated product and service offerings,» said Soh.
Non-Bank Platforms Offering Future Solutions
Non-financial institutions such as the likes of Alibaba and Tencent may eventually be eligible for banking licenses and have set their sights on providing wealth management products through e-commerce and social media platforms.
«Whilst these platforms, such as the world’s largest money market fund Yu’e Bao, are largely limited to distributing low-risk liquid products, they are likely to have a greater impact over time, as they acquire clients and start to understand wealth management,» said Soh.
Build a Workforce Prototype
In light of various digitalization trends, the asset management industry needs to chart the journey of change, so as to remain relevant in the digital age, said Soh. For example, traditional fund distributors are actively transforming themselves, developing digital wealth advisory platforms alongside their human relationship manager channels. They are leveraging technology to enhance their client servicing, as well as to scale into client segments that are currently underserved.
In collaboration with Workforce Singapore, IMAS features a hackathon session where a group of design engineers from the PWC Experience Centre will build a workforce prototype within eight hours in a crowd-sourced challenge. The prototype will be unveiled towards the end of the conference.
