Greater productivity, greater efficiency and a greater focus on high-value areas will be here to stay in the digitalized post-crisis world of private banking, Werner Schlossmacher, Credit Suisse’s Asia Pacific head of platform management, told finews.asia.
As a private bank, many of the benefits of digitalization are obvious: transition to a relationship management model with lower costs; greater scalability across activities like communications or compliance; or a better understanding of client behavior or preferences through data and analytics.
But as a private banker from the pre-digital era, it may sound like the machines are swallowing daily tasks and threatening to take your job.
«At Credit Suisse, we have invested and built digital capabilities, as digitization remains a key strategic long-term driver and enabler of sustainable business growth,» said Werner Schlossmacher, APAC head of platform management at Credit Suisse, in a conversation with finews.asia. «As a digital-ready bank, we are prepared for all situations and given recent events, it is clear that this is the right way.»
RMs Upgraded
According to Schlossmacher, the «right way» does not include making human relationship managers (RM) obsolete. Quite the contrary, most of the technology adopted by the industry has been aimed at shifting banker focus away from menial, low-value items – like collecting documents to open an account or help execute a simple cash equity trade – to higher-value areas.
This includes items that can help differentiate the bank, such as the promotion of exclusive hedge fund and private equity access, or items that improve relationships, like family wealth and legacy planning.
Highly Personalized Solutions
«While the digital evolution in the private banking industry is important to the success of our business in the future, relationship managers will continue to remain a core part of client relationships, having built these relationships based on trust and highly personalized solutions,» Schlossmacher said.
«What technology does, to use a fashionable expression, is to ‘augment' the serviceability of each relationship manager by providing scale in account management, curated and personalized content as well as 'on the go' access and convenience. This reinforces our strategy of having a technology-supported RM to provide tailored and relevant advice to our clients.»
New Pace
In the pre-pandemic environment, the average cycle between disseminating advice and pushing clients to the point of decision-making took no small amount of tedium. Clients would often require many reminders and much motivation only to attend a few events before coming to a transaction decision at a leisurely pace.
But since the outbreak, clients have demonstrated not only phenomenal openness to digitalization but a shift towards a more motivated desire to consume content. Between February and July this year, for example, Credit Suisse hosted about 120 digital engagements across the Asia Pacific region, including conference calls and virtual meetings, which were attended by over 29,500 people.
Greater Usage of Analytics
«Client and relationship manager (RM) engagement on our various digital tools and platforms is high and continues to grow, and we believe [the] increased agility will remain post-crisis on the back of increased digital adoption,» Werner said, adding that the bank’s digital strategy will continue to focus on tailored advice and self-servicing, seamless onboarding and greater usage of analytics.
