The growth of onshore wealth managers throughout Southeast Asia has fuelled demand for technology, Avaloq’s Gery Dachlan told finews.asia, which is seeking to expand in a new market.
Continued wealth creation in Asia and the rise of new technologies have led banks throughout the region to launch or strengthen financial services targeting clients of all types and sizes, from the mass affluent to the ultra-rich. In Southeast Asia, this trend has extended beyond the regional hub of Singapore to various onshore markets.
As a result, demand for banking and wealth management technology has also been on the rise in recent years, according to Gery Dachlan, Avaloq’s managing director for Southeast Asia and Australia, especially amongst local players with relatively nascent platforms.
«The local banks need to ensure that they are able to protect their top customers, provide the right products and solutions to grow the wealth management in their own bank,» Dachlan said in a conversation with finews.asia.
Vietnam Opportunity
One new opportunity Avaloq is eyeing is Vietnam, which Dachlan said is a good target due to the maturity level of its wealth management market.
Elsewhere in the region, Avaloq also has partnerships including, most recently, with Indonesia’s Bank Central Asia and Bank Negara Indonesia following a 2019’s tie-up with Bank Mandiri. The Swiss tech firm also has partnerships with Unionbank and BPI in the Philippines, CIMB and Maybank in Malaysia and DBS in Singapore.
Advisory Upgrade
In addition to core banking software, Dachlan highlighted the need to upgrade advisory solutions with new digital tools at local wealth managers in order to provide a more tailor-made offering that is unique to each client. Currently, many offerings are based on relatively fixed options with little to no customization.
Furthermore, with different levels of maturity and local requirements, the tech challenges differ from market to market.
«Therefore it’s important to understand and appreciate those local requirements, but at the same time, be able to provide the right expertise in terms of best practices that are used across many geographies,» Dachlan added.
Currently, Avaloq offers a range of solutions to banks including SaaS (software as a service) partnerships or full outsourcing of wealth management operations.
