Interactions between private bankers and their clients will be changed forever, according to Cedric Lizin, Standard Chartered Private Bank’s ASEAN and South Asia head, in a conversation with finews.asia about post-pandemic engagement.

Standard Chartered Private Bank is accelerating its digital transformation and opening a floodgate of tech initiatives to scale – and create a remote alternative – for all end-to-end client activities.

Starting at the point of opening an account, the bank has rolled out an e-signature capability, taking away the need for physical signatures in-person, and began client onboarding via video calls. It has catered to increased demand for video conferencing and introduced training for bankers in the form of video-based role playing to simulate the alternative form of interaction in different scenarios. There are indeed pros and cons to consider such as ease of access to files or visual lags caused by internet connection issues.

Client-facing capabilities aside, the bank is also pushing digital transformation in its internal like the introduction of e-instructions or policies requiring the removal of all physical paper exchanges between departments.

Client Reception

Clients have responded positively with the global adoption of its mobile app «SC Private Banking» climbing 12 percent and the number of active users also increasing 14 percent in the first half of 2020. The bank has observed traffic across a wide range of activities: portfolio balance views, statement downloads, secured chatting and research views with a 2.5-fold increase in the specific usage of investment advisory publications.

Between April and July alone, Standard Chartered Private Bank held webinars attended by over 450 clients – the equivalent of around 1.5 clients in attendance for each of its 300 relationship managers in Asia.

«Digital Engagement is Here to Stay»

Not unlike its peers, Standard Chartered believes that the human touch in private banking, driven by the complex and sensitive issues involved, will never be fully replaced. It recently piloted an initiative with external providers to explore the possibility of effective AI-driven acquisition of high or ultra-high net worth (HNW/UHNW) clients but found the results dissatisfactory.

But the once unbreakable sanctity of manual behavior – from issues as simple as checking your discretionary mandate on a sunny day or executing large trades and cash transferals – maybe no longer even in the post-pandemic environment.

«That said, personal and face-to-face engagement remains important especially for sensitive matters or complex transactions and for older clients who are more comfortable with traditional methods of interaction,» Cedric Lizin, Standard Chartered Private Bank’s ASEAN and South Asia head, told finews.asia. «[B]ut digital engagement is here to stay and will play an increasingly important role in the client engagement model.»

Methodology Matters

While some opt for instincts from digital business acumen (however young) or pure will to decide what tech initiatives to roll out, Standard Chartered has emphasized using empirical means to determine an effective path.

«At Standard Chartered, we started adopting the «Agile» methodology several years back and using the concept of client journeys which emphasizes client feedback, we have seen many successful initiatives being brought to life across […] private banking and retail banking,» Lizin said, highlighting an example of the latter of testing of digital collaboration tools was done with clients through virtual interviews.

«Harnessing the power of digital is one of our priorities in order to drive personalization of services at scale regardless of client segment. For private banking, we need to challenge the traditional assumptions in terms of the effectiveness of digital engagement with UHNW or HNW individuals.»