DIGITAL LEADERS IN
WEALTH MANAGEMENT EMPOWERING CLIENTS AND
CREATING AN INNOVATIVE
CULTURE
Benchmarking – Strategy – Recommendations
www.MyPrivateBanking.com
November 2016
Report Extract
Original Report with 58 pages
Plus comprehensive data appendix
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 2
CONTENT
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5
2.0 METHODOLOGY 7
2.1 SCOPE 7
2.2 EVALUATION PROCEDURE 7
2.3 EVALUATION CRITERIA 9
3.0 RANKING 11
3.1 AGGREGATED TOP 20 RANKING: CROSS CHANNEL PERFORMANCE 11
3.2 TOP 10 RANKED LEADERS: DIGITAL STRATEGY AND DELIVERY 13
4.0 STRATEGY: TOMORROW’S BUSINESS MODEL DOES
NOT EXIST, THE IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION TODAY 14
4.1 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ‘GO DIGITAL’? 14
4.2 DIGITAL DIARY – AN INSIGHT INTO THE OMNICHANNEL LIFE OF A NEW CLIENT 17
4.3 HOW EVEN THE BEST WEALTH MANAGERS STILL HAVE WORK TO DO 20
5.0 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS 22
5.1 ANALYSIS OF THE 20 BEST DIGITAL WEALTH PERFORMERS 22
5.2 ASSESSMENT OF THE TOP 10 RANKED DIGITAL LEADERS 26
6.0 SPOTLIGHT ON THE DIGITAL WEALTH LEADERS 29
6.1 MERRILL LYNCH 29
6.2 BNP PARIBAS 33
6.3 INVESTEC 37
6.4 UBS 41
6.5 CHARLES SCHWAB 45
6.6 SOCIETE GENERALE 49
6.7 CREDIT SUISSE 50
6.8 ABN AMRO 51
6.9 DBS BANK 52
6.10 UNICREDIT 53
6.11 VONTOBEL 54
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 3
7.0 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS 55
8.0 AUTHORS 57
9.0 DISCLAIMER 58
ORDER THE REPORT HERE
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 4
TABLE OF CHARTS
Table of underlying reports and scoring 8
Collaboration as a key enabler of digital innovation 15
Top 20 Wealth Managers by weighted aggregated score 22
Mapping of performance by channel and MyPrivateBanking report category 23
Analysis of cross-channel consistency 24
Digital Leaders’ average performance by theme 26
Digital leaders’ engagement approach with external innovators 27
Leaders’ position on a robo-advice offering 28
Digital roles and responsibilities 28
Merrill Lynch Social Media 29
Merrill Lynch iPad app 29
Merrill Lynch desktop website 29
BNP Paribas desktop website 33
BNP Paribas Mobile app and Social Media 33
BNP Paribas showcases its digital tools well 35
Investec home website 37
Investec mobile app and social media 37
UBS home website 41
UBS core mobile app 41
UBS social media 41
Charles Schwab’s website 45
Charles Schwab mobile app and social media 45
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 5
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
>> Only banks and wealth managers firmly
establishing digital as a strategic priority for
their respective wealth businesses will
succeed in winning and engaging clients in
the future. Today, even the digital leaders
among the global wealth managers are still
providing an uneven digital experience,
performing well on one channel, but not as
well on others. There is a general lack of a
coherent, overarching cross-channel
strategy for serving clients. <<
This is a key finding of the report “Digital Leaders in
Wealth Management 2016” for which we analyzed
and ranked the overall digital performance of 20
leading global private banks and wealth managers.
The report ranks the 20 firms across all digital
channels, and specifically for websites, mobile apps
and social media. A separate ranking identifies the
top 10 for digital strategy and delivery. The results
are illustrated by featuring core elements of the
digital presences of the best ranked wealth
managers.
DIGITAL LEADERS FOR CROSS-CHANNEL
PERFORMANCE: UBS, BNP PARIBAS, DBS
Looking at the ranking of the 20 best wealth
managers across mobile, website and social media
channels, the best performer in the
MyPrivateBanking ranking is UBS with 582 points
(out of a maximum of 736 points), with its mobile
channel counting as the bank’s main strength. BNP
Paribas is ranked second with 556 points, showing a
balanced and excellent performance across all
three channels. DBS claims the third rank with 555
points, earning the accolade of best website of the
Top 3 in an aggregated ranking for cross-channel
performance. The full rankings of the 20 banks and
wealth managers across all channels are detailed in
the report.
Our research shows that the leading banks and
wealth managers are driving toward multi-channel
transformation at varying paces and in their own
unique ways, but with a common goal of positively
impacting the client experience. These firms have
learned more about the online behaviors and needs
of HNWIs than their peers, yet there are still major
gaps before a truly omni-channel offering can be
achieved, which are identified in the report.
One striking finding from our analysis of wealth
managers’ performance across multiple digital
channels is that there is a huge variation in website,
mobile and social media offerings. Even within a
channel, websites for example, most firms
demonstrate an inconsistent level of capability
between domestic and international sites. As a
consequence, only five of the top 25 global wealth
managers according to assets under management
make it into MyPrivateBanking’s shortlist of the top
10 digital leaders, and just over half feature in the
ranking of top 20 cross-channel performers. In our
view, this is far too large a proportion of clients for
whom their wealth management relationship is
under-digitized and the pace of change is too slow.
DIGITAL LEADERS FOR DIGITAL STRATEGY
AND DELIVERY: MERRILL LYNCH, BNP
PARIBAS, INVESTEC
In a special additional assessment, the report
explores which firms demonstrate strong digital
organization, leadership, industry participation, and
targeted wealth solutions. As a result, the research
report classifies the top 10 leaders for digital
strategy and delivery and provides detailed case
studies of the top 10 and an analysis of what makes
them unique.
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The following three top the ranking as strategic
leaders:
Merrill Lynch, which excels with its unique, client-centric strategy and solutions.
BNP Paribas, with its consistently top-performing digital tools offering a plethora of best practices.
Investec’s entrepreneurial DNA has clearly had an impact on its digital strategy, helping it to get all the key elements in place.
We see a traditionally conservative culture within
many firms, and to overcome this we found that an
outside-in approach to innovation is popular.
However, our digital leaders are typically engaged
in two different modes of collaboration with
FinTech startups and entrepreneurial communities,
such as accelerator membership or hosting their
own hackathons. The report’s data appendix
evaluates the digital strategies and delivery of the
top 10 along 17 criteria in five areas: innovation,
digital strategy, organization and leadership,
branding and segmentation, cross-channel
integration
DIGITAL LEADERS REACH OUT FOR
INNOVATIVE INPUT AND GIVE DIGITIZATION
TOP PRIORITY IN ORGANIZATION AND CLIENT
SERVICE
Based on the analysis of the aggregated results of
MyPrivateBanking’s benchmarks, but also assessing
the overall digital strategy and innovation approach
of the top 10 ranked firms, the report derives in-
depth strategic and practical recommendations for
engaging and winning wealthy clients through
digital channels. MyPrivateBanking sees, among
others, some common traits that these digital
leaders share:
There is defined accountability for the wealth management businesses’ digital agendas in the form of a Head of Digital/Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and/or ringfenced digital resources.
Leaders are high profile advocates for digital transformation in the industry, actively participating in the evolving start-up ecosystem. But there is still more to do, especially in the area of robo-advice and differentiation from other consumer segments, such as retail.
Leaders are not afraid to experiment; they have introduced agile development and customer experience methods and are exploring new propositions with FinTech.
The digital offerings of the leading firms generally empower clients to act, through a powerful combination of insightful and actionable tools.
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 7
METHODOLOGY
2.0 METHODOLOGY
In this report, the synthesis of our extensive single
channel analyses of wealth managers allows us to
identify which firms are operating outside the
digital status quo and outperforming their peers in
their efforts to implement new client facing digital
technologies. These firms, who have undergone
comprehensive evaluation, emerge to be crowned
leaders. In the following chapters, we present
detailed case studies of the top ten digital wealth
management leaders and what makes them unique.
This report analyzes the overarching digital
performance of 20 leading global private banks and
wealth managers. Annually, MyPrivateBanking
carries out several benchmark studies into the
online, mobile and social media capabilities of
wealth managers. The evaluation frameworks used
evolve each year to adjust to changing user
behaviors, technology innovation and new
standards in terms of the online tools wealth
managers offer their clients. Based on a core set of
research reports conducted over the past six
months the results for all major digital touchpoints
are factored in to this report.
Data for the 20 best performing firms are featured
in this analysis, with a focus on the Top 10 ranked
leaders. Each of the underlying reports generally
selects the banks for evaluation on the basis of their
size in terms of assets under management to ensure
that they have a strong global influence; provided
that the wealth managers have a significant
website, mobile or social media presence as per the
relevant requirements for each study. In all three
reports, most of the requirements for website,
mobile app and social media capabilities specifically
relate to the needs of high-net-worth (HNW) clients
and exclude offerings solely for retail or other types
of client.
In phase 2 and in order to identify the overall
leaders the additional analysis is concerned with
wealth managers’ general digital strategy and
efforts at innovation. The assessment considers the
integration between channels and seeks to identify
what are the characteristics associated with the
leading firms.
LEADERS ARE UNIQUE IN THEIR DIGITAL
EFFORTS AND ARE RESPONDING TO
INNOVATION AND TRENDS (3 POINTS)
Have they won any awards for their digital platforms, or innovation which benefits the end customer? (1 point)
Do they have an automated investment (robo-advice) proposition or explicit plan to launch one in 2016/17? (1 point)
Does the wealth manager engage with external innovators such as FinTech, via alliances or partnerships? (1 point)
LEADERS HAVE A CLEAR DIGITAL STRATEGY
FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENT (1 POINT)
Are their digital offerings nested within group presences, or separate/own website, dedicated wealth management apps
Is there a wealth specific content hub or are thought leadership/research efforts part of group stream? (1 point)
Is there a regional or global approach, do the online offerings vary significantly by location, is the major focus on delivering solutions in the domestic market?
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 8
METHODOLOGY
LEADERS DEMONSTRATE AN ORGANIZATION
AND LEADERSHIP COMMITTED TO DIGITAL (1
POINT)
Is there Executive Committee or WM Board level accountability for Digital and/or innovative client experience initiatives for wealth management?
Is there a Head of Digital for Wealth Management or a digital team with a focus on wealth? (1 point)
LEADERS HAVE A DISTINCT APPROACH TO
BRANDING, DESIGN AND CLIENT AUDIENCE
SEGMENTATION (3 POINTS)
Are there features or high quality content focused on wealth client goals, life stage, profession or interest e.g. succession, entrepreneurs (1 point)
Is the design of the interfaces/user experience clearly targeted at a wealthy audience, distinct from retail? (1 point)
Is there a transactional capability alongside portfolio management and advisory features? Are there exclusive capabilities for wealthy clients? (1 point)
LEADERS BRING TOGETHER AND INTEGRATE
THEIR OFFERING ACROSS MULTIPLE
CHANNELS (1 POINT)
Do they allow front line staff to use social media in addition to corporate presence? Are individual profiles of specialists/advisors linked on the website?
Is the branding and approach consistent across different touchpoints? (1 point)
How much interoperability is there in terms of opportunities to switch channel, or cross-channel promotion e.g. mobile app featured on the website
BONUS POINT (1 POINT)
Finally, a bonus point was awarded for wealth
managers who scored at least one point in each of
the five sections above, bringing the total available
points total to 10 points.
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 9
RANKING
3.0 RANKING
The ranking of digital leaders in wealth management is done in two phases, as detailed in the previous chapter.
The first phase is based on MyPrivateBanking’s extensive benchmarks in websites, mobile apps and social
media. We aggregate the results, apply a mobile-first weighting in favor of mobile apps and provide the Top
20 ranked wealth managers across channels. The next step is to examine the Top 10 ranked firms in more
detail, and, using the results of our special strategic assessment we finally rank the overall performance of the
digital wealth leaders based on their strategy, digital leadership and innovation efforts.
3.1 AGGREGATED TOP 20 RANKING: CROSS CHANNEL PERFORMANCE
TOP 20 RANK
(Weighted)
WEALTH MANAGER WEIGHTED TOTAL
TOTAL MOBILE APP(S)
WEBSITE(S) SOCIAL MEDIA
Weighting 6 3 1
1 UBS 582 … … … …
2 BNP PARIBAS 556 … … … …
3 DBS 555 … … … …
4 … 546 117 65 52 -
5 … 511 119 52 66 1
6 … 483 105 58 44 3
7 … 478 109 51 57 1
8 … 471 122 45 62 15
9 … 465 107 48 59 -
10 … 459 111 50 49 12
10 … 459 98 55 43 -
12 … 444 108 48 48 12
13 … 429 90 53 37 -
14 … 419 95 46 47 2
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 10
RANKING
TOP 20 RANK
(Weighted)
WEALTH MANAGER WEIGHTED TOTAL
TOTAL MOBILE APP(S)
WEBSITE(S) SOCIAL MEDIA
15 … 418 109 39 57 13
16 … 399 88 45 43 -
16 … 399 87 46 41 -
18 … 390 90 42 45 3
19 … 381 77 50 27 -
20 … 380 95 39 45 11
Note: The scope of the social media report does not include the corporate bank’s social media presences even though
some content is relevant to HNWIs. Of the 200 wealth managers in scope, only social media profiles that achieve the
greatest popularity from being targeted at HNWIs were included.
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 11
RANKING
3.2 TOP 10 RANKED LEADERS: DIGITAL STRATEGY AND DELIVERY
LEADER RANK
WEALTH MANAGER STRATEGIC
ASSESSMENT (as %)
AGGREGATED POINTS BY CHANNEL
1 MERRILL LYNCH … …
2 BNP PARIBAS … …
2 INVESTEC … …
4 … 80% 582
4 … 80% 471
6 … 75% 483
7 … 65% 546
7 … 65% 511
9 … 55% 555
10 … 40% 459
11 … 35% 478
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 12
STRATEGY: TOMORROW’S BUSINESS MODEL DOES NOT EXIST, THE
IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION TODAY
4.0 STRATEGY: TOMORROW’S BUSINESS MODEL DOES NOT EXIST,
THE IMPORTANCE OF INNOVATION TODAY
4.1 WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO ‘GO DIGITAL’?
Everyone is doing digital to some extent, but what does this actually mean? Our research into wealth
managers’ digital performance focuses on the impact to the client interface, but the deepest changes are the
result of innovation and process digitization right through to the back-end infrastructure.
(… more in full report pages 14 to 17)
4.2 DIGITAL DIARY – AN INSIGHT INTO THE OMNICHANNEL LIFE OF A NEW
CLIENT
The following realistic example shows how important a wealth manager’s various digital touchpoints are to
clients going about their daily lives:
(… more in full report pages 17 to 20)
4.3 HOW EVEN THE BEST WEALTH MANAGERS STILL HAVE WORK TO DO
This report aims to shine a spotlight on those wealth managers leading the digitization of wealth management
today. In our detailed analysis of the status quo it is clear that overall, wealth managers are still moving slowly
when it comes to delivering this to end clients today. We observed the following themes in our cross-channel
analysis of the Top 20 wealth managers’ performance in websites, mobile apps and social media, as four areas
which require improvement:
(… more in full report pages 20 to 22)
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 13
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
5.0 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
In this chapter, we present our findings from the analysis of the Top 20 wealth managers across websites,
mobile apps and social media. We consider the balance between the different channels and also seek insights
into any common areas of consistency. Then we move onto a summary of the strategic assessment of the Top
10 ranked wealth managers, taking a closer look at the unique characteristics of these firms and their digital
strategies.
5.1 ANALYSIS OF THE 20 BEST DIGITAL WEALTH PERFORMERS
The Top 20 wealth managers charted below and their digital offerings have undergone extensive scrutiny
throughout our research and benchmarking, and their combined scores show how every point in these
evaluations is crucial, especially in terms of mobile apps...
(… more in full report pages 22 to 26)
5.2 ASSESSMENT OF THE TOP 10 RANKED DIGITAL LEADERS
The results of our separate special assessment into the specific digital leadership characteristics of leading
firms signals a mixed approach. Their interpretation is preceded by a note of caution in that these firms,
according to our extensive independent research, are the elite performers – the wealth management
equivalent of ‘digital natives’ – in an industry which is generally lagging significantly behind with their evolution
into this digital age.
(… more in full report pages 26 to 29)
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 14
SPOTLIGHT ON THE DIGITAL WEALTH LEADERS
6.0 SPOTLIGHT ON THE DIGITAL WEALTH LEADERS
(… more in full report pages 29 to 55)
7.0 SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Our study has shown how digital leaders have established foundations of accountability, industry participation
and have clear strategic views on the topic of digital. There is not one single formula for success, but various
approaches as each firm seeks the approach which works best for their organization. The simplest and most
striking characteristics of digital leaders in wealth management that we have observed are however, levers of
important and radical change:
(… more in full report pages 55 to 57)
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 15
AUTHORS
8.0 AUTHORS
Steffen Binder, Managing Director and co-founder of MyPrivateBanking Research.
Steffen is Head of Research and oversees the research agenda and analyst teams.
He is responsible for creating and developing powerful concepts and relevant
content to help our clients navigate a rapidly changing digital environment. As
a regular speaker at finance and technology industry events around the globe,
Steffen is frequently quoted by leading business media such as the Wall Street
Journal, Handelsblatt and the Financial Times. Prior to this, Steffen was Managing
Director of Forrester Germany, Switzerland and Austria. He came to Forrester
through its acquisition of Forit GmbH, a leading European technology research
company, of which he was also a co-founder. Prior to that, Steffen was a partner at Monitor Company (Strategy
Consulting). He holds Master’s Degrees in Organizational Behavior from Rutgers University (USA) and in Public
Administration from the University of Konstanz (Germany).
Emma Haffenden, Senior Analyst, has over 10 years of experience in wealth
management and technology, mostly delivering analysis, business and technology
strategy consulting and research services to C level Executives of the leading global
financial institutions. In her previous roles, she led the Wealth & Private Banking
practice at Expand Research, a subsidiary of BCG, and was a Senior Consultant and
member of the Wealth Leadership team at Capco in London. Emma has a degree in
IT and Criminology, and a Master’s in Database Systems from the University of
Westminster.
DIGITAL LEADERS IN WEALTH MANAGEMENT │ 16
DISCLAIMER
9.0 DISCLAIMER
IMPORTANT NOTICE AND DISCLAIMERS:
NO INVESTMENT ADVICE
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investment, or undertake any investment strategy. It does not constitute a general or personal
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individual investors. The price and value of securities referred to in this report will fluctuate. Past performance
is not a guide to future performance, future returns are not guaranteed, and a loss of all of the original capital
invested in a security discussed in this report may occur. Certain transactions, including those involving futures,
options, and other derivatives, give rise to substantial risk and are not suitable for all investors.
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