The digital revolution continues to affect private banking, as one of the world's main players rolls out a platform and chooses to debut the service in Singapore.

Credit Suisse has unveiled its new digital private banking platform for Asia-Pacific clients, choosing Singapore as its first launch location – which is also the city where the service was created at the bank’s “innovation hub”.

The Credit Suisse Private Banking app follows the Zurich-listed bank’s previously-stated commitment to expand its client-facing technology globally. In the first phase of the launch, the app will be available to iPad users, with access extended to other devices, including the Apple iPhone, web browsers, and those operating on Google Android. The firm said that new features and enhancements will be released in phases, including portfolio analysis, greater trading capabilities and alerts based on clients’ preferences.

The rollout of the app comes at a time of continued technology ferment in the global banking and wealth management sector, with firms embracing mobile devices, apps and new communication channels to hook up advisors and clients. MyPrivateBanking Research, the Swiss-based firm tracking such developments, argued in a report in early March that younger vendors are rolling out video communication tools that more strongly replicate in-person client meetings, for example, by providing share screens as well as ways to exchange messages and record meetings.

Analytical and natural language software solutions are also helping advisors analyse data; management solutions are affording a more disciplined and integrated approach to social media, and innovative client engagement tools are being developed. Its report, called Digital and Mobile Solutions for Financial Advisors 2015, said mobile apps are “by far” the dominant technology tool in the financial advisory world. There has, unsurprisingly, been a “significant increase” in the number of mobile app vendors in the past three years, it said. Another report by the same organisation last year said that Chinese people are the most advanced users of mobile technology when it comes to their financial affairs. For instance, 96 per cent of Chinese respondents are using mobile apps for financial transactions and information, whereas this proportion is only 74 per cent in the US and 71 per cent in Germany.

Made in Singapore
In its rollout, Credit Suisse said it intends to launch the new digital private banking platform in Asia-Pacific initially, and will make it available to clients in other regions including the US, Switzerland and Europe over the course of this year.

Demand for digital access in Asia-Pacific is high, with 82 per cent of high net worth individuals in the region expecting their wealth management relationship to be conducted through digital channels, Credit Suisse said. It also said that 83 per cent of private banking clients are more likely to leave wealth management firms that cannot offer an integrated digital and direct channel experience.

“Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region for our private banking business, with some of the biggest and most rapidly expanding wealth pools in the world,” said Francesco de Ferrari, Credit Suisse’s head of private banking  for Asia-Pacific.

“However, as private banking is a relatively nascent industry in the region, we also face the challenge of having a sufficient talent pool to cater to the demand in wealth management services. A digitalised multi-channel service delivery model will bring the relationship manager and bank significant gains in efficiency and higher value-added productivity, and most important of all, enable us to serve our clients better and cultivate deeper client relationships,” de Ferrari said.

Clients will be able to communicate with the bank and relationship manager through a number of routes as a result of the platform, it said. Customers can use tools that let them cope with moving markets and trade in securities, such as equities, exchange traded funds and real estate investment trusts, and spot foreign exchange rates. Clients will be linked to the bank through instant messaging, audio, video, screen and document sharing.

A development team of around 200 employees and vendors was involved in the development and delivery of the new platform, headed up by the firm’s chief operating officer for private banking in Asia-Pacific, Francois Monnet.
“We designed, developed and prioritised the features of our first product release based on what these clients expect from our bank and our digital offering. We also fully engaged with our clients in the process of designing and shaping the digital solution, with in-depth one-on-one ‘voice of the client’ sessions held with around 100 clients across the region, and their feedback shaped the way our first release of the digital private banking app looks today,” Monnet said.

“Developing the digital private banking platform in less than a year, the team embraced a completely new delivery model, inspired by successful technology companies, adopting a much more agile approach to developing banking technology solutions. We constantly prioritised and refined the product development process listening to feedback from our clients and colleagues, then launching new functionality releases in short cycles, often delivering working software every two weeks. This incremental approach allows us to constantly test and improve the features and continually enhance the capabilities and functionalities going forward,” he added.

(Editor’s comment: This looks like a smart move by Credit Suisse and it will need to show its platform is easy and effective as rivals such as DBS, the Singapore-headquartered bank, and UBS, its rival Swiss bank, develop fintech platforms. Digital channels are increasing “must-have” rather than “nice-to-have” for major private banks. Given the issues that continue to swirl around suitability, know-your-client, not to mention desire by clients for flexibility and efficiency, these systems will need also to be secure. Finally, it is notable that Switzerland's second-largest bank chose Singapore, not its home country, to launch the app.)