Smartphones are transforming wealth management by enabling customers to access financial services anytime from any device. They allow customers to view portfolios, research investments, and communicate with advisors via email, video chat, and social media. Smartphones also allow advisors to access enterprise applications and view a unified view of customer accounts and interactions across all channels on their mobile devices. Looking forward, smartphones will continue expanding the scope of mobile wealth management through improved connectivity, applications, and integration of social media features.

1. Smartphones: Leading Wealth
Management to Mobility
Universal Banking Solution System Integration Consulting Business Process Outsourcing

2. Of the different types of mobile phones owned That was clearly not enough for customers–
by 5.3 billion subscribers around the globe, increasingly on the go and hence highly mobile
smartphones grew the fastest in 2010. Since dependent – who wanted to analyse and trade
their launch a few years ago, smartphones have on their portfolio, create new wealth management
transformed the nature and scale of mobile accounts and seek financial advice from their
usage, from merely talk and text to lifestyle relationship manager using their handsets. And
enablement thanks to their features, usability those using multiple mobile devices expected
and a variety of downloadable applications. As these services to be device agnostic, that is,
they grow in sophistication, mobile devices are equally accessible on any gadget. Last but not
becoming an increasingly popular mode of data least, customers demanded a human touch from
transmission and Internet access. their mobile wealth management service, so
that they could interact ‘face to face’ with advisors
This progress has also rubbed off on the within their bank or service provider organisation.
financial services space. Analysts predict that
by 2015, approximately 1 billion people will use These trends impressed upon investment
their handsets to perform banking and other management firms the need to enhance their
financial transactions. The success of the mobile customer offering as well as fully mobile enable
phone as a means of financial inclusion their customer facing staff. Traditionally,
among the unbanked masses of Africa and Asia relationship managers used their mobile phones
is now legendary; however, less known is the mainly to schedule appointments, speak to
role that smartphones are playing in the customers or view their holdings; their usage of
opposite end of the market to mobilize wealth wealth management tools was low. With
and investment management. consumers demanding anytime, anywhere, any
device interactivity, banks and other providers
The journey of mobile wealth management were pressed to equip their staff so that they
could service the wealth or trading related
But first, some background. requirements of their end customers over
the mobile.
As nomenclature suggests, in the past, wealth
management and allied advisory services were The mobile enablement of financial advisors
offered only to High Net Worth Individuals (read
as the ‘really wealthy’). However, in recent years From a functionality perspective, mobile wealth
financial service providers realised that as their management tools had to cater to two distinct
incomes rose, even mass market customers sets of needs. Advisors sought support for
sought avenues other than routine savings and financial planning, portfolio management,
deposit accounts to channelize their funds. In customer relationship management, portfolio
response, wealth managers started offering analytics, performance and customer reporting
trading, portfolio and investment management and proposal generation, whereas customers
services to a wider customer base. expected help with trade order management,
planning and analysis, profile creation, and
The expanding customer base for wealth research into stocks, markets and new products.
management gave a two-way push to its mobile-
enablement–now, a large number of people In order to mobile enable their advisors,
demanded anytime, anywhere access to their banks developed proprietary mobile banking
portfolios, and wealth managers needed a cost- applications in-built with wealth management
effective way to reach them all. To start with, a and trading tools; similarly, other wealth product
limited set of functions, enabling customers to organizations and trading houses developed
view their portfolio and watch the stock market, their own solutions. Alternatively, some institutions
were made available on mobile devices. acquired mobile wealth management tools
Moreover, because mobile devices were still created by third party banking technology vendors.
quite basic at that time, people had to access It appears that these measures succeeded in
these features via SMS, which was low on making the investment management business
usability and convenience. more ‘mobile conscious’- according to a 2009
Smartphones: Leading Wealth
Management to Mobility

3. report on the mobile internet by a leading analyst, respondents below the age of 50 want to use
the rate of mobile based trading is directly a variety of technologies including mobile
influenced by the availability of mobile internet texting, tablet PCs, video messaging and
on smartphones. It is expected that by 2014, webcam conferencing to connect with their
trade related activity on mobile will grow 10 financial advisors.
times compared to current levels.
• But above all, smartphones have brought
Now customers have started demanding that the usage of mobile devices by customers
their mobile wealth management service be fully and their financial advisors, which were
linked to mobile banking, so that they can monitor progressing along parallel tracks, in sync.
and transact on both accounts simultaneously. When wealth management applications were
Going forward, financial service providers will first enabled on mobile phones, customers
have to offer end to end banking and wealth and relationship managers used them
management on mobile devices; a recent independent of each other. Hence, these
example of this is China’s ICBC which launched tools delivered limited utility to advisors
personal wealth management services for its because they gave them no visibility into
mobile banking users late last year. customers’ activity; as a result, advisors were
unable to maximize value for them. In order
The role of smartphones in mobile wealth to support their customers’ requirements,
management what advisors really needed was a unified
view of customers on all banking channels,
Advancement in mobile technology, particularly including the mobile phone, as well as access
the arrival of smartphones, has made it possible to enterprise applications. They needed to
to meet most customer expectations as follows: be able to access a customer’s detailed
profile on mobile, immediately after closing
• Because smartphones allow easy connectivity
the conversation; they needed customers’
to the mobile web, over a user friendly
transaction history – gathered over all banking
interface, they have transformed the user
channels – as well as the information
experience. Rather than struggle with clunky
they carried on their own computers to be
text messaging, customers can navigate
accessible on mobile, on demand. They
an intuitive and feature-rich interface to
needed the content and context of every
complete their financial transactions. What’s
customer interaction to be seamlessly
more, the usage of wealth management tools
available on their handheld device.
is smartphone-agnostic – that is, the device
itself takes care of screen size and information Smartphones have enabled banks to bring a
and graphics rendering issues. mobile banking offering to customers, which
they can easily browse through to access
• Access to the mobile Internet and a huge information and services, regardless of the
variety of downloadable financial tools device they use. They have also opened the
enable customers to fulfill all their wealth floodgates to a host of downloadable banking
management activities, whether it is account and wealth management applications. To bank
aggregation, research and analysis, financial advisors, smartphones have brought a unified
planning, portfolio management or trading. view of customers, CRM, access to enterprise-
Moreover, smartphones have enabled that level applications, and visibility not only into
much needed coupling of mobile banking sites customers’ wealth and trading accounts but also
and trading platforms. their complete banking and financial position.
• Smartphones score high on interactivity, Looking forward
allowing users to communicate with
relationship managers via email, instant The use of social media, which is quite prevalent
messaging, video chat or even social within Internet banking, is also making its way
networking. A recent survey of 1,000 wealthy into mobile wealth management thanks to the
investors in the U.S. underscores the smartphone, which has emerged as an alternative
importance of interactivity - over 50% of to a ‘laptop plus Internet connection’. Thus, in
Smartphones: Leading Wealth
Management to Mobility

4. addition to consulting analyst reports and broker expanded the scope of mobility; hence, mobility
recommendations, customers are using their is no longer limited to the mobile phone, but
smartphones to easily connect to their social rather, extends to mobile-enabled devices like
networks in order to discuss wealth management the iPad, tablet and notebook computer. With the
options with peers. In the survey mentioned unfolding of 3G and even 4G telecom services
earlier, 1 in 2 respondents under the age of 50 across the world, it will be possible to bring a rich
claimed to have used social networking to seek audio-visual experience to wealth management
investment advice; 1 in 3 said they participated on all these devices, going forward.
in investment blogs; and 2 out of 3 were
interested in being part of an online community References:
to discuss investment ideas.
1. Winning the Battle for the Wealthy Investor,
Unfortunately, research shows that wealth Jeff Loucks, Robert Waitman, Jorgen Ericsson,
management firms have very limited participation Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, 2011
in social media. A 2010 study of the top
30 wealth managers revealed that two thirds 2. New My Private Banking Report: Most Banks
made sporadic appearances or were totally and Wealth Managers Ignore Facebook,
absent from the social space. If they are to Twitter & Co., November 4, 2010, http://
retain demanding customers in a difficult and www.myprivatebanking.com/article/new-
competitive environment, wealth managers myprivatebanking-report/
must fulfil their every need, including that of
3. ICBC Introduces Wealth Management
social connectivity.
Services to Mobile Banking Users, November
The regulatory environment for mobile financial 2, 2010, http://retailbanking.banking-business-
transactions, including those in the realm of review.com/news/icbc_introduces_wealth_
trading and wealth management, is fairly well management_services_to_mobile_banking_
established. The only grey area is in the case of users_101102
trades originating in a foreign location; more
4. The Mobile Internet Report 2009,
clarity is needed on this front.
Morgan Stanley
But overall, mobile wealth management is on a
strong uptrend. With the branch and Internet
channels assuming a greater advisory role, Author
we can expect more banking and wealth
Sai Kumar Jayanty
management transactions to be fulfilled over
Lead Product Manager -
the mobile, especially the smartphone, which will
Finacle Product Strategy
enjoy even higher adoption in future. Also, the
evolution of mobile computing technologies has Infosys Technologies Limited
Smartphones: Leading Wealth
Management to Mobility