The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst to accelerate digitisation and the demand for predictive analytical insights in real-time, agreed a TCS BaNCS panel when discussing the latest requirements from investor clients.
In a panel entitled “Dialogues on Cloud and Asset Servicing”, panellists discussed how asset servicers have revised their operating models in the face of the pandemic and how they have benefited from use of cloud-based applications in meeting their clients’ needs.
Moderator Giles Elliott, global head of business development, capital markets at TCS BaNCS, outlined how data can play a key role in providing predictive insights in real-time. He also highlighted how the demand for digital transactional experiences in wider society has influenced a move to frictionless transactions within asset management.
Expanding on these themes, Will Sheehan, senior product owner at Vanguard, discussed how online retailers such as Amazon are driving an appetite from retail customers for a “seamless digital experience” from transaction through to delivery of a product.
This, Sheehan said, is becoming more synonymous with an investor client's needs, in that asset servicing firms are starting to think about how they can make their client’s investor experience digital from end-to-end.
The panel also discussed technology and data’s role in the sphere of corporate actions.
Moderator Elliott asked: “What tools are needed to better access structured and unstructured data in corporate actions? What do we need to resolve the issues in our clients’ transformation journey within corporate actions?”
Nick Weiss, director of Azure transformation, financial services at Microsoft answered: “The investor needs all the technology tools available to them right now; these tools deliver the best experience. The pandemic brought about change quicker than people anticipated in this arena. It will be interesting to see where that change will be driven by the use of technology to have better access to data.”
According to Niki Prodanovic, principal (general partner) of Canada operation, at financial advisor firm, Edward Jones, a primary challenge is that data information exists, but it is not available in a digestible format, or in a way that can be interpreted meaningfully.
Elliott asked if one answer to these issues would be a move toward more common standards and a more consistent base of technology used across corporate actions, as well as other areas in asset servicing.
Prodanovic said: “I think as an industry we need to agree to exchange information, certainly in areas where there is no competitive advantage. If we do not agree on some level of standards, we will not solve the problems apparent in an effort to push closer to an invisible operations model.”
Elliott also touched on how the Central Securities Depository Regulation (CSDR) has “forced a level of collaboration that has not been seen in the industry for quite a while”.
He discussed whether this collaboration could influence more industry discussion and collaboration to bring non-competitive areas of data together for asset servicers.
To this, Weiss indicated: “Moving toward the cloud allows for doing more with data — extracting more insights. In terms of technology needs, when I think of cloud alone, cloud is the first step on the journey to building a broader tech stack; it is not a magic bullet, but will empower firms to drive toward creating better solutions.”
Elliott then asked the panellist their view on what else was needed for further collaboration in the asset servicing industry. “What should we start and, perhaps, stop doing?,” he asked.
To this, Prodanovic voiced: “We need a common space for open dialogue. We have built a level of trust across this competitive landscape with areas that are not competitive, we need to continue to be purposeful and strategic with that.”
Elliott then asked what the focus would be over the next three years, in terms of driving transformation for the investor client’s experience.
Prodanovic indicated: “We need to focus on our people as a resource to help bring that understanding of collaboration in the future; there is a very human element to what we have discussed.”
She added: “Data is the life source of enabling different consumer experiences and we need to look at the ways in which we can aggregate, analyse and enhance data in a way that is truly meaningful to the people we serve.”
Weiss affirmed: “We need outcomes to be client-centric and outcomes that best serve the clients’ experience through technology transformation. We need to collectively question: ‘Is my firm set up in a way that gains the most up-to-date data insights?’”
Sheehan concluded: “As an industry, let us have that conversation around what we collectively need to do to democratise data and what we need access to — at that point of agreement, we can then start to take steps in the right direction.”
