Tech transformation is critical for overcoming challenges facing financial services
GBST is celebrating a technology transformation, a brand refresh, and four decades of being in the market. GBST’s global CEO Robert De Dominicis (pictured) discusses the outlook for wealth management technology in 2023.
Looking to the year ahead, what are the challenges facing the industry?
The outlook for the industry is challenging, with several factors impacting our clients and how they operate. The ever-changing regulatory environment means our clients need technology platforms that speak to each other and can quickly and seamlessly be updated.
COVID has shown us the need for enhanced digital engagement, but many super funds are still struggling with this – in particular, how to engage their member base. Because our super system is compulsory, people often have a ‘set and forget’ mentality, meaning they are not engaging with their super, nor are they actively involved in how their future financial situation could be improved.
This is especially critical because when I look at Australia’s age demographics, we’re approaching a phase where more people will be in the drawing down of retirement funds phase, versus contribution. Alongside this, there is a growing focus on performance versus fees. Both these factors mean that people’s super balances will need to work harder for them.
Members need more information and greater visibility to be able to track their retirement savings through digital channels, and they expect a personalised service based on their own data. This requires modern technology solutions, and companies need a leading digital proposition to make it efficient and cost-effective.
At GBST, we have strengthened the link between our in-house digital agency and our technology product designers and customer experience experts. This has allowed us to elevate the digital experience for the user and accelerate digital transformation for our clients. This is the kind of interconnected offer that financial services organisations need – something that is on demand, seamless, globally scalable, and provides a personalised but simple client experience.
What does this mean for market participants, your clients?
What this means for financial services organisations today is that they need modern and scalable technology that can help them to drive operational efficiency, reduce risks and navigate challenging market conditions.
Stringent regulatory compliance and increasingly personalised performance expectations from end users are driving the need for new and innovative technology, to help companies adapt more quickly to change and deliver the desired customer outcomes.
‘Old’ or legacy technology is a particular issue and can have a negative impact on business outcomes. Legacy systems are often hard to integrate with newer technology systems and can’t keep up with digital demands. For example, sometimes these legacy systems are not able to operate in the cloud and many were designed before the internet was even thought about let alone existed. For companies that are trying to change systems, if the underlying tech stack is not right, this can take years.
Ultimately, the solution to these challenges is a technology that has deep functionality, and which is underpinned by a modern technology stack which supports future evolution, growth and innovation. Customers don’t want to have to recode the system every time there is an update. It should be configurable and easily updated.
Our market-leading wealth management administration platform Composer is an example of that – we’ve invested heavily in a huge transformation to evolve the underlying technology stack and front-end user experience, as well as futureproofing the platform for clients, to make sure it can seamlessly evolve as needs change.
And what does 2023 look like for GBST?
It’s busy but we like it that way. There has been a significant upsurge in new opportunities in both Australia and the United Kingdom and we’ve expanded the business in the United Arab Emirates with our Composer wealth management administration platform. There has been more than a 50 percent increase in the usage of fund platforms in the UAE over the past year, a trend that we’ve experienced in the UK over the last 10 years. As a leading UK technology provider, expanding our offering to the UAE and appointing local representation was a logical step in our next phase of growth and expansion.
We’ve also just launched a brand refresh. It was the right time to consider how we’ve grown and how we can continue to move forward. This year we’re celebrating four decades in the industry, working to cement GBST as a trusted name in the sector, and today we are partners to many of the world’s leading financial services organisations.
In Australia, this includes two of the big four banks, and leading financial services, superannuation, insurance, and investment companies. In the UK, we underpin some of the leading wrap platforms and retirement providers.
And with age comes experience. We’ve been doing fintech since the two words were separate, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t always looking to the future and thinking about how to make improvements and drive innovation even further.
GBST has made a huge investment in our underlying tech stack over the past five years, with a focus on client-based benefits. We’ve invested heavily in transforming our technology, so our clients have a leading SaaS solution that’s cloud-ready, accessible, and simple to integrate.
So, when I look to the year ahead, we’re excited to continue our growth journey, build on our tech transformation, and deliver solutions that inspire wealth innovation.
