To discuss such issues, WealthBriefing interviewed Stephanie Gopalakrisna, vice president, head of communications at BNY Mellon’s , another US-headquartered business. In EMEA, Pershing has £55 billion ($72 billion) in assets under administration, 
 

Technology
There has been many studies done on Millennials, and nearly all have found that the generation are very technology-centric. A recent study by , who discussed technology in the financial world.

As Millennials demand for more technology to take care of their wealth, it begs the question: whether it is the end of traditional wealth managers and the personal touch? Gopalakrisna, who was previously responsible for marketing and communication at Equiduct, a European trading platform, disagrees and feels that a wealth advisor is still necessary to help provide guidance early on in an investors’ financial career. 

“Technology is just an enabler between companies and the Millennials,” said Gopalakrisna. "Companies need a good technology interface, because without technology you look like you are dated. However the personal touch is very important, you have to have the choice. I think one of the key things that we keep on coming back to is if you are trying to attract Millennials whether as an investor or as an employee, you need to make them confident that you are speaking the same language. They need to feel comfortable asking the advisor questions.” 

The head of marketing and communication added: “A Millennial investor may not know anything about savings or investment advice and they might feel a little bit unsure about going to a face to face interview to talk with someone who may know much more than them. A first introduction via a webchat or a talk may provide a light touch approach which brings them confidence. We talk about omni-channel because, it is not just about one thing, it’s about being able to move between channels from personal touch to online chat to another stage. Millennials are different in terms of channels. Technology is not going to revolutionise the financial industry, but it needs to give Millennials different channels to communicate because this is what they experience in their everyday life.”

Technological trends outside of the financial world have seen a rise in the use of social media over the past ten years. From Twitter to Facebook, the barrier of communication across the world has lowered, as many users today can talk to someone at any moment, anywhere on the planet at the touch of a button.

Some financial institutions have started to reach out to their clients through social media and applications on smartphones, such as BNP Paribas which became the first European bank to sign a global partnership with Snap Inc, the parent company of Snapchat. The Parisian lender has been investing its resources into strengthening its relationship with Millennials by enhancing its social networking platforms.

However Gopalakrisna, who is responsible for marketing and brand awareness at Pershing, feels that the financial world has not cracked the sector of financial social media and does not feel Millennials will actually connect with a firm on Twitter or Facebook.

“How does the financial industry use social media as a whole?” said Gopalakrisna. “This is a question I have not really answered myself.  It’s an important channel of communication, an important channel to actually to keep in touch with what happens but I don’t think we have cracked yet how we use social media to attract new investors. Millennials are very unlikely to actually follow a company which they don’t have any emotional connection to. It’s a tricky question and to be very honest, I am not really sure we have the answers yet.”

She also discussed the ways in which Pershing connects with Millenials via social networking websites.

“We do use social media, but we choose to do it on Twitter and LinkedIn to support some of the stories we push out around an event, and I think that makes sense,” said Gopalakrisna. “We don’t really use Facebook because I believe it is more private. I haven’t seen that many firms or banks using social media in a very ground-breaking way. There are some good initiatives here and there but it is mainly to support an event. Pershing does a four day event called INSITE, and we use social media there and it is good because it has a purpose. But using social media for the sake of it, I am a little bit hesitant.”