Objectway, a pan-European strategic partner for banks, asset and wealth managers in the growth and scaling of their businesses, marked “innovation built to scale” as the central theme at its OWIN26 Customer Conference held this month in Sorrento. The industry gathering targeted the complexities that arise with digital growth in wealth management, with an agenda featuring a number of high-profile Objectway success stories.

Taking to the stage for opening remarks, Objectway founder and group CEO Luigi Marciano argued that scalability, rather than innovation alone, is the sector’s current point of inflection. “Scalability means doing more without adding more complexity, growing faster while maintaining efficiency, delivering innovation in a way that is sustainable, repeatable and profitable,” he told the audience.

Marciano pointed to the “innovation diamond” – comprising client experience, offering, and operating model – as a framework for inspiring more tailored, orchestrated ecosystems. He described this optimal set-up for scaling as one that could allow capabilities to work together seamlessly while preserving individual strengths, warning that “scale without differentiation is just standardisation”.

He added that “scaling is a journey, not a destination”, and urged firms to design solutions that evolve as client expectations, competition, and technology change. COO Alberto Cuccu picked up on these points during his following keynote, stating that “the real differentiator is the ability to orchestrate in-house and partner capabilities into a unified ecosystem”.

Ecosystems, not islands

Cuccu presented Objectway’s Solution-as-a-Service model as an example of this differentiator, stating that the model “enables scalable innovation by combining efficiency, flexibility and client-specific value in a single model”. He emphasised that “composable architecture is the key to orchestrating scalable operating models without increasing complexity”.

In view of AI, Cuccu recognised the technology as an “amplifier of scalability”, and predicted the industry moving to “systems of actions”, where AI is used to “execute processes autonomously with much less humans in the loop, but where humans will remain in control of supervision, validation and accountability”.

When applied to wealth management, Cuccu said systems of action will sit on top of the existing operational foundations that expose data and business logic via APIs and events. Agents then combine this with large language models to run tasks, connect to tools like Salesforce or SAP, and respond to chat commands.

Cuccu revealed plans for Objectway to deliver such a system, confirming with the audience: “We are currently building a new generation of intelligent agents.” His statement continued: “These agents will extend and amplify the existing capabilities of our platform and will be orchestrated within the platform.”

While he didn’t provide a definitive timeline for this development, Cuccu made clear that “any solution using AI needs to have rigid controls on data in terms of privacy and quality, and must be able to guarantee the explainability of actions and decisions taken by AI agents”. The operational obligations picked up as a result of using AI were further highlighted by Ashley Longabaugh, head of wealth management at Celent.

Capability meets responsibility

“AI is no longer experimental. It’s becoming embedded in daily workflows. But AI doesn’t simplify operations by default. It introduces new layers, model, governance, data dependencies, and monitoring requirements,” Longabaugh explained in her presentation. “So while AI increases capability, it also increases responsibility.”

She cited strengthened data foundations and governance frameworks as central to scaling AI responsibly, and pointed to the need for integrated feedback loops for continuous monitoring and a clear model for execution. “When governance is embedded, AI becomes not just powerful, but trustworthy, and that’s what allows it to scale,” Longabaugh said.

She reframed the growth challenge as an operational design problem, and warned that “complexity is not temporary, it’s structural”, before urging firms to start with process because “technology doesn’t fix process, it reflects it, and at scale, it amplifies it”.

Innovation in continuity

In a joint interview at the conference with FinTech Futures, Objectway’s leadership framed “innovation built to scale” around the realities of operating a regulated and operationally complex financial institution.

“Financial institutions are complex organisations, and they have to guarantee strong continuity with their technology platforms, so they cannot innovate like a start-up,” Marciano told FinTech Futures. “They have to evolve and innovate in continuity, because they must guarantee operational resilience.”

Marciano, who has led Objectway since 1990, pointed to the rise of the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and its mandate for operational continuity as a driver of this more recent style of innovation. “DORA has become a very important topic for banks,” he said. “The technology environment of a financial institution is an ecosystem of different providers that have to be orchestrated altogether.”

The CEO emphasised outcomes and durability over one-off wins: “Innovation has to be outcome-driven.” He noted that firms are “looking for innovation that provides a clear business outcome that enables scale”, and stressed focus and timing: “Our framework turns innovation into scalable outcomes through structured orchestration and disciplined execution.”

On client experience, Marciano highlighted how further personalisation could be achieved by combining a standardised core with client servicing capabilities, underscoring how Objectway’s technology “enables personalisation at scale, so the experience of every single client can be personalised” – a capability he describes as “an important differentiator”.

Joining the interview, Cuccu pointed to the depth of digital engagement even in older demographics: “If you consider that the average age of our clients’ customers is over 60, achieving a 63% digital penetration rate into such an age group is a great result.”

Looking ahead, Objectway’s expansion priorities appear to be both selective and sequenced. Marciano explained: “We are a Pan European player, and we want to expand and consolidate this leadership as a European leader,” citing North America as “a very important market.” The company chose its entry point carefully: “We decided that the best way to start landing in North America was through Canada,” with Cuccu noting, “The Canadian financial services industry is more aligned with European regulations than America.”

To accelerate these plans, Objectway sold a majority stake to international private equity firm Cinven in August last year. Through the co-control partnership, closed for an undisclosed amount, Marciano said the company sought “a strong financial partner to support us in scaling Objectway as a clear category leader, to accelerate growth, enhance our platform, and support global expansion”.

He confirmed that leadership retains operational control of the company, and now leans into the expertise provided by Cinven to “decide together on strategy aspects, like acquisitions and large investments”. The partnership followed a year-long, Deloitte-supported business plan and a scan of US and European funds, with Cinven selected as “one of the few Pan European private equities with deep expertise and networks to draw on, particularly in the areas aligned with Objectway’s core geographic and sector strengths”, active in Germany, France, and Italy – identified as core markets for Objectway.

Execution over hype

As OWIN26 drew to a close, the message was clear: “innovation built to scale” is less about headline features and more about disciplined execution supported by composable foundations and a Solution-as-a-Service ecosystem, with AI providing amplification under embedded governance.

With outcome-driven priorities shaped by operational resilience requirements such as DORA, and personalisation delivered on a standardised core, Objectway’s approach appears to blend continuity with change. Coupled with a sequenced expansion path – entering North America via Canada and Cinven’s financial backing – the company is placing a calculated bet that orchestrated partnerships will define the next chapter of scalable wealth management.