Insights

The US banking and particularly the private wealth industry stand at a crossroads, grappling with the dual challenges of meeting escalating demands for efficiency and innovation while adhering to stringent regulatory requirements. This balancing act is exerting unprecedented pressure on financial institutions, compelling them to re-imagine their operational strategies and service models.

Driving Digital Transformation in Banking. In an era of rapid technological advancement, the banking industry finds itself at a critical crossroads. As financial institutions strive to meet evolving customer expectations, comply with stringent regulations, and fend off disruptive competitors, IT transformation has become more than a buzzword – it’s now essential for survival and growth.

In an era where digital transformation is reshaping the financial services industry, core banking systems are the nerve centre for day-to-day operations. While organisations often prioritise finding the most cost-effective core banking solution, the true TCO often lurks beneath attractive headline prices. Understanding these additional fees and charges is crucial for decision-makers.

The financial services industry has been investing heavily in automation and efficiency in the highly visible front-office processes.

The financial industry is undergoing a transformative shift driven by innovations in open banking and financial services, alongside regulatory advancements like the proposed Financial Data Access (FIDA) regulations in the EU, and the global adoption of ISO20022 for SWIFT messages. Technology and efficient operations are inseparable topics and change often creates anxiety. However, embracing the transformation, inside out, is the path to future growth.

Customer experience – what’s all the fuss about?

Jean-Philippe Bersier, Director of Sales & Marketing at ERI

In an era defined by rapid technological advancements and evolving customer expectations, the financial services industry finds itself at a critical juncture. Consumers have become used to e-commerce platforms that offer transparent, real-time visibility over the entire payment, execution and delivery life-cycle. Enter the Financial Data Access (FIDA) framework – an evolutionary regulatory proposal that promises to reshape the way financial services providers will expose, access and utilise customer financial data.

At the core of ERI’s success lies a deep commitment to understanding and addressing the unique needs of our clients. We prioritise customer feedback and work closely with wealth management and private banking professionals to ensure our technology platform, OLYMPIC Banking System, and the suite of solutions it offers, are tailored to their specific requirements.

In den letzten Jahren wurde viel über Engagement-Kanäle im Private-Banking-Sektor diskutiert. Diese Community war schon immer stark auf persönlichen Service und Beziehungen ausgerichtet. Jahrelang wurde dies von Angesicht zu Angesicht mit E-Mails und direktem Zugang zu dem Kundenbetreuer geleistet. Die Pandemie und die digitalen Möglichkeiten, die durch den Generationswechsel beschleunigt wurden, änderten all das, und die Welt verlagerte sich ins Internet.

In today’s dynamic landscape, banks and financial institutions must adapt their operating models to ensure sustainable growth and competitiveness amidst a crowded and aggressive market. This includes both traditional and non- traditional players vying for market share and customer attention.

In an era defined by rapid technological advancements and evolving customer expectations, the financial services industry finds itself at a critical juncture. Consumers have become used to e-commerce platforms that offer transparent, real-time visibility over the entire payment, execution and delivery life-cycle. Enter the Financial Data Access (FIDA) framework – an evolutionary regulatory proposal that promises to reshape the way financial services providers will expose, access and utilise customer financial data.

ERI’s OLYMPIC Banking System empowers private banks and wealth management firms to modernise their business models, swiftly deliver innovative products, and offer personalised digital services, all while effectively managing costs and risks.

Roger Furrer, Director at ERI, outlines the benefits of an omni-opti channel offering.

Some clothes designers say that brown is the new black. Being environmentally aware is so fashionable these days that one may say green is the new black. For young people, others say that, politics is the new black. For the securities industry, arguably, tokenisation indicates that black may be the new black. But, asks ERI’s Alan Goodrich, what form does this new black take for market participants, their organisation structures and underlying technology platforms?

For those operating in the financial services sector, the regulators continue to pile on the pressure with a wave of new challenges in the pipeline to add to those already implemented. Institutions, already struggling with less than optimal legacy technology platforms, must begin to feel like they have become recipients of the proverbial (uninvited) gift that just keeps on giving (but not in a good way). A new, modern, open, integrated core system could be the one item on the wish-list this festive season that would change the narrative and transform the challenges into opportunities.

We may not have to deal with inter-dimensional post-trade, just yet. However, a recent Citi Securities Services survey reported that close to 90 percent of respondents expect their local settlement cycles to shorten to T+0 or T+1 within the next five years. In the current T+2 world, once instructions are sent to custodians then, if there is a problem, it will become apparent the next day and may still be corrected and settled in time. In contrast, T+1 actually requires a T+0 approach, underpinned by technology to support continuous real-time processes, as the window for reconciling and settling trades is compressed to same-day. Here, ERI’s Alan Goodrich explores the path to implementing a technology solution that meets the future; everything, everywhere, all at once requirements.

These days we hear a lot about Infrastructure-as-a-Service, Software-as-a-Service, all the way through to Banking-as-a-Service. Unfortunately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for every institution, is there?

ERI’s mission is to deliver a unique technology solution, OLYMPIC Banking System, that constantly evolves and adapts to meet the critical requirements of financial institutions and responds to the constraints and challenges of the market. Having successfully delivered more than 400 implementations in over 60 countries, ERI has established deep expertise by continuously envisioning and incorporating future requirements while ensuring the efficiency of the existing product for our clients’ day-to-day use.

ERI constantly adapts its suite of solutions to reflect and respond
to the challenges faced by banks. Diversification of products and
services and reducing time-to-market are key to ensuring new
sources of revenue. Responding to new customer segments and
needs is an enormous challenge. The only way to face it is the capacity
to rely on a digitally enabled platform that facilitates agility
and connectivity thanks to an open architecture. An enhanced and
personalised customer experience will be the backbone of client
acquisition and retention.

ERI’s mission is to deliver a unique technology solution, OLYMPIC Banking System, that constantly evolves and adapts to meet the critical requirements of financial institutions and responds to the constraints and challenges of the market.

The UK private wealth industry has seen its consolidation trend strengthen in 2022, and 2023 looks to be no different. Banks have been very careful in choosing priority areas for investment. In this respect, technology is now seen as a central element of a bank’s growth strategy, but also as a key differentiator in a highly competitive environment. Leveraging technology to optimise operational efficiency and manage costs is essential to building a robust and healthy bank for years to come.

Das Auftreten neuer Marktteilneh-mer in der Bankenwelt, auch wenn ihr Marktanteil derzeit nur einen winzigen Bruchteil des Finanzsek-tors ausmacht, hat die traditionellen Banken dazu gezwungen, Überle-gungen zu ihrem Geschäftsmodell und zu technologischen Alternativen anzustellen.

Customer centricity has always been a focus for wealth managers. But, as this digital age unfolds and a new generation of customers takes the reins, what customer-centric means is changing. How can modern wealth managers adapt while still achieving profitable growth?

Jean-Philippe Bersier, Director – Business Development, ERI, talks to WealthBriefing, on ERI’s accomplishments this year.

2022 is coming to a close. A new year with fresh opportunities awaits. Technology forms an integral part of financial services and now, more than ever, it has become a key market differentiator enabling firms to attract new business, retain profitable customers, leverage new ecosystems and introduce fresh revenue generating digitally-delivered products and services.

Conversations are at the centre of any client relationship. The need for easy, flexible and transparent ways to interact are driving the digital transformation and will fundamentally reshape the banking industry. While internet banking and omnichannel interactions have created a world of convenience, clients are indicating that something is missing: personal interaction.

With a progressive strategy in place, an institution can more easily flex its service model to meet the future demands on the business.

In order to remain profitable and relevant, the providers of private banking and wealth management products and services are having to reinvent themselves as part of their digital transformation journey. Alan Goodrich, at ERI, suggests that becoming the client’s Ambassador of Quan holds the key.

According to recent statistics, despite measures like the EU’s CSDR regulations that were intended to improve settlement efficiency, the rate of failures has actually increased, not come down. The US, Canada and India all have firm plans for the introduction of T+1. The pressure is mounting on Europe to follow suit. As a result, the topic is being given an increasing amount of airtime and is the subject of intense discussion. Regulation, so far, does not appear to be solving the issue. So, asks ERI’s Alan Goodrich … what will?

ERI is the developer and supplier of the OLYMPIC Banking System – a fully-integrated, front-to-back, parameter-driven digital platform supporting all types of financial service providers to streamline their core business activities. The solution provides a complete set of decision-making, transaction processing and control tools to support domestic and inter – national financial services. It comprises a functionally-rich, client-centric, integrated system with a wide range of front-, middle- and back-office activities across the entire lifecycle.

Two years ago, only a few crypto enthusiasts had heard of NFTs. By the end of 2021, the market was already worth around $41 billion, according to data from Chainalysis.

Simon Wong, Regional Director, ERI, talks to Tom Burroughes, Group Editor at WealthBriefingAsia, on its accomplishments this year.

Géraldine Chardiny – Au cœur des services financiers, la maîtrise des technologies devient un enjeu majeur. La transformation du marché bancaire français passe de plus en plus par une architecture ouverte, pour une gestion facilitée, et un recentrage sur le cœur du métier de banquier, le conseil.

Crypto-speak and fintech buzzwords – the financial services technology space is awash with either new vocabulary or new use cases for existing concepts. The reality is that much of the jargon used by vendors to hype up technology is simply intended to make it sound or look exciting and new, when often the truth is something else entirely.

Paul Driver, Sales Manager at ERI, talks to Tom Burroughes of WealthBriefing about what it takes to make the complex simple.

What happened when, as a child, you played in a sandbox? It generally ended up in tears with everyone and everything needing a thorough cleaning! Some core system suppliers promote having a sandbox as being a shortcut to evaluating whether their solution will meet potential users’ requirements. However, a bit like the childhood sandbox experience, there is a risk that taking such a shortcut will not end in the happy smiles anticipated.