In Europe we are finally turning the page to a new post-pandemic chapter, the Wealth Management Industry has a reason for cautious optimism.
Gartner reports say that 2020 stands as the most difficult year ever faced for forecasting IT spending, that has changed several times to keep the pace and scale of government, social and economic interventions.
In 2020, for the first time in decades, IT spending has contracted by 2.5%: major drops have happened in mobile devices, internal services, storage, printers, but also vertical software like Wealth Management platforms. Only cloud infrastructure and services have grown in 2020.

But if we look into the future, IT spending will rebound by 4.5% in 2021 and remain above 4% for the rest of the forecast period, through 2024. The growth will be close to two digits in vertical software, analytics and business intelligence. Cloud infrastructure and services will continue to grow.
Celent Oliver Wyman recent research highlights the most likely scenario for Wealth Management IT business is the so called resilient rebound, with a stable growth of 4.3% per annum over the next 4 years to come and boost of 4.5% in 2021.

Cloud based solutions and cybersecurity will dominate the infrastructure evolution, while from a business point of view, focus will be mainly on front-office and specifically on frictionless advisory, client journeys enablers like digital onboarding, hybrid and intelligent AI assisted advice.

In the next future, despite much uncertainty remains, it will be an imperative to invest in technology or you run the risk of being eclipsed by competitors. Firms will be devoting greater resources toward enhancing advisor efficiency and the client journey, considering the front-office a competitive differentiator.

We talked a lot about this and much more, at the SITC FinTech Conference and Awards on 29th June, adding that streamlining a digital onboarding that automatise AML/KYC, account opening, document acquisition and signing is now a business imperative: a recent research says that 68% of clients expect it post Covid.

Also introducing biometrical authentication tools to create more secure experience is a strong digital trend, along with opti-channels which allow clients to use the collaboration channel most suited to the task they are doing.

Finally, leveraging the vast amount of data that all firms have but don’t use, is considered strategic to build behavioural insights to really hyper-personalise your service offering, increasing your brand, your pedigree, a sense of real professionalism and trust with your clients to level never seen before.