The Swiss-based banking software provider's new managing director for South Asia and Australia spoke to finews.asia about the region’s growing prominence in Avaloq's growth strategy.

«Asia continues to grow quite well for us. Economic growth in the region is driving wealth, so demand for wealth management solutions should continue to grow,» Avaloq's Gery Dachlan told finews.asia.

Singapore-based Dachlan, who joined the company in 2013 and was formerly Avaloq’s market head of South Asia and Japan, was recently named managing director for South Asia and Australia. He is now looking to expand the firm's market success in the region, following its acquisition by NEC Corporation in December 2020.

Gery Dachlan, your promotion came alongside a new Asia-Pacific strategy for the firm. What does that entail?

Asia is a main focus region for Avaloq, and we want to have people on the ground to support those markets, which is why we split the APAC region into two parts: I’m based in Singapore, covering South Asia and Australia, while Pascal Wengi, who joined Avaloq last year, is based in Hong Kong, covering the North Asia region.

While Avaloq has a strong Swiss heritage, with NEC we are i part of an Asian corporation. Having a large Japanese multinational as a parent has proved to be especially advantageous to Avaloq in Asia.

NEC has a very large footprint in Asia, with a strong presence in markets such as Malaysia, Thailand, India and Indonesia – among others. We are working closely with NEC to see how we can leverage their capabilities in these markets and to tap into some of the technologies they have that could complement our offering.

How's momentum been for Avaloq in the region recently?

In terms of our development in Asia over the past six months, notwithstanding the difficulty of the Covid situation, Asia continues to be a growth market for Avaloq. I’m proud to say that we’ve signed three new clients in Asia, which have adopted Avaloq solutions in various ways. This clearly demonstrates the flexibility of our offering.

The first new client, Haitong International, uses our solution in a more traditional sense: to support their front office advisory process. The second one selected Avaloq on a SaaS (software-as-a-service) model to service its large onshore mass-affluent segment, as well as its private banking business in Southeast Asia. The third selected Avaloq's wealth platform also to support its front-office investment advisory process.

What opportunities and challenges banks are facing in the wealth management space?

There’s a generational shift happening in terms of wealth management, and this new generation of clientele is more demanding. There is also a growing list of new entrants into the wealth space, from securities firms, neobanks, fintechs and techfins, who are all competing for a piece of the wealth management pie.

From a solutions perspective, ultimately a bank wants to offer a more engaging client experience and the way to do this is via hyper-personalisation, or tailoring information and financial products that are sent across to them. Conversational banking is gaining popularity – whether because of the current pandemic situation, or just as a matter of personal preference, there is adversity to meet face to face at the moment. Interacting with clients through social media has proven to be very popular, but banks need to do this in a secure and compliant manner.

We also see opportunities in cloud computing, which drives greater efficiency and agility. Also, crucially for those that want to succeed in wealth management, it gives them the ability to scale and to get better insights via data analytics to understand client needs. Cloud computing also powers highly personalised services and advice in a cost-effective way.

What are your focus areas in the near-term? 

As we are seeing a promising growth momentum in Asia, economic growth in the region keeps driving the demand for wealth management solutions and this trend is expected to continue in the coming years. Innovation remains a key priority for Avaloq in helping banks to provide the differentiation factors they need grow their respective businesses.