Mario A. Bassi of Solution Providers Management Consulting explains how private banks can use technology to help stand apart from competitors, plus provide a platform that breeds staff loyalty.

Date: Nov 2011

Tags: Technology, Differentiation

• The technology priority for private banks in today’s challenging market environment should be whatever helps firms to increase sales efficiency and understand its clients better
• Technology should also be focused on linking the knowledge held on the client with the solutions that the bank has
• Anything which supports business efficiency can also increase staff loyalty

According to Mario A. Bassi in an interview, the technology priority for private banks in today’s challenging market environment should be whatever helps firms to increase sales efficiency and understand its clients better.

Technology should also be focused on linking the knowledge held on the client with the solutions that the bank has, he added.

As an example, he said, in an organisation where he worked previously, rather than sending relationship managers (RMs) lots of emails from the research department, the firm created a research portal.

Not only did this create a centralised platform to which an RM could subscribe, but it also enabled management to do analysis on the effectiveness of specific research – based on how much of the sales force was using it – which in turn made it clearer what could be done to improve efficiency in this area.

Technology as a differentiator

According to Bassi, he said that in a previous discussion with a very senior wealth management head, who ran a business which was known to be efficient, the key was to build a front-end platform which worked smoothly and accurately from the perspective of both the clients and RMs alike.

Issues such as how fast it could access the relevant information about the client, and how quickly it could get relevant materials which they are interested in, in order to help them in their decision-making process, were critical as part of offering a differentiated service, he explained.

The role of technology to increase staff loyalty

Bassi added that anything which supports business efficiency can also increase staff loyalty.

Assuming a bank has a decent brand and product shelf, then if it can offer an efficient “cockpit” for an RM to navigate in today’s challenging environment, in the process of being relevant to clients, then the smarter RMs are less likely to move from one firm to the next so quickly.

This has been the experience for those organisations which have implemented such infrastructure, he explained, given that the focus for most RMs is servicing their clients and being able to spend more time with them.