After a brief hiatus, Future Fintech (FFT) was back at INSEAD on July 15 (albeit virtually), for our first event of 2021. Given the way global markets have performed and the renewed interest generated in wealth management over the last 18 months, it was only apt to kickstart proceedings in 2021 with a discussion on Robo Advisory.
In classic FFT fashion, speakers from leading Singapore based Fintechs and Banks, faced off against each other for a thoughtful and lively discussion on the topic. ‘Team Fintechs’ was represented by Laurent Bertrand, CEO and co-founder of Better Trade Off (BTO) and Michele Ferrario, CEO and co-founder of Stashaway. ‘Team Banks’ was represented by Amelia Chua, Director at Bank of Singapore and Veronika Kuznetsova, Director of Innovation & Strategy at UBS.
The event kicked-off with product demos and presentations from Laurent and Michele. Among other things, they talked about their respective growth journeys, impact of the pandemic on their respective businesses and the new product innovations they have introduced to keep pace with growing customer demand. It was very insightful to see different business models at play in the industry. While Stashway is trying to challenge the big banks by offering their unique product suite to customers directly, BTO is partnering with banks to help them with their wealth management needs.
The product demos were followed by a panel discussion where Amelia and Veronika gave their perspectives on competition faced from challenger fintechs and future direction of the industry. They shared their insights on the latest products their respective banks had launched to attract more digitally savvy customers. A major theme that emerged from the discussion was that the industry is going through a digital revolution that ultimately benefits the end customer. The digital wealth management industry is expected to grow exponentially in the future. Worldwide, assets under management by digital wealth managers are expected to grow from $987,494 million in 2020 to $2,487,280 million by 2024, while the number of users is expected to almost double, from 224.5 million in 2020 to 436.3 million in 2024.
We at FFT are excited about this space and will keep bringing you events, discussions, blogs and podcasts on this topic. So keep watching this space for more
Written by Sagar Sarbhai MBA’17J
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