18
NEWS
Angus Canvin, Senior Advisor for Regulatory Affairs at The Investment Association, outlined how London and the UK would continue to “do well” following the triggering of Article 50 but that it doesn’t mean the asset management industry should be complacent.
London is bigger than the French, German and Italian industries put together. That size difference, though, shouldn’t mean that the city pulls up the drawbridge after Brexit. The ecosystems between Luxembourg, Ireland and London work so well because of the reciprocal nature of the relationship.
Mark Versey, Chief Investment Officer for Global Invest- ment Solution at Aviva, believes that the asset industry should prepare for a hard Brexit. Aviva has operations in Europe but those firms that don’t will want to establish themselves before time runs out. It’s a case of having the right licences. In the worst-case scenario, companies will require a licence for each individual country in the EU. Obtaining these and building up a presence in European countries is a critical task, as costs are only likely to rise.
“You need to prepare for the worst,” added Richard Lacaille, Global Chief Investment Officer at State Street Global Advisors. Brexit will raise costs, but that doesn’t mean that asset managers can’t continue to provide the same good service. Firms also need to stay as close as pos- sible to their continental clients to understand what their needs will be. “The UK shouldn’t rest on its laurels,” stated Lacaille. “We need to make sure that we are still the leader in the future.”
Robo revolution
Robo-advice is enabling a whole new sector of society to interact with their investments, according to another panel at TSAM London 2017. There’s a huge amount of potential in the “advice gap” – the demographic who either don’t know about investments or are too afraid too take the plunge.
“No one provides services that they can understand,” said Joe Parkin, Head of Wealth and Retail UK at Blackrock. “The
At the end of the day, noted Hey, it’s not for those already in the industry to say whether they’re the “game changers” but evidence suggests that robo- advice is having a big impact on the asset industry. More than 50% of Nutmeg’s customers are first-time investors. “People used to either learn the ins and outs themselves or hire an expensive wealth manager – now there’s another way.”
Alex Hamilton
state has stepped away from providing for retirement and people aren’t saving enough, we need manage- ment for the masses, not the 10%.”
Shane Williams, Co-Head of UBS Smartwealth, argued that it is important for firms to provide advice, not just guidance disguised as advice. “It’s been a hard nut to crack. Yet UBS offers regulated advice – Nutmeg and others have pioneered the space and now others are stepping in.”
Jono Hey, Head of User Experience at Nutmeg, took this on the chin. “Robo-advice is a strange term,” he commented. “Nobody calls online shopping ‘robo- shopping’”. It boils down to the same thing, being able to replicate a service online that people can access easily.
Parkin agreed. “Some people don’t want to meet their advisor once a month or once a week. Those people are happy to just do it all over the internet.” Despite that, it will be hard for new players to get into a market with larger organisations elbowing their way through. “Nutmeg got a five-year head start so has already established itself but there are already a lot of big firms looking at this space, including retail banks and supermarkets.”
www.ibsintelligence.com © IBS Intelligence 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
