Onboarding may sound a novel term in some quarters but it is a crucial part of wealth management, and one growing in importance. In Asia, onboarding specialist Appway is determined to seize its opportunity.

The business of “onboarding clients swiftly and efficiently into a wealth management business has become one of the selling points for firms that understand the need to reduce the inevitable aggravations as much as possible. As regulations continue to mount, the process becomes ever more critical. Technology plays a huge – and growing – part in the onboarding process. One of the stand-out firms in this sector (and an award-winner) is Zurich-headquartered Appway. This firm has branched out way beyond Switzerland, to create a business in Asia. Given the scale of the Asia market – PricewaterhouseCoopers expects Asia HNW individuals to hold $22.6 trillion by 2020 – onboarding all that wealth is a big challenge. It is also a big business opportunity, where the prime mover advantage can often be crucial. This publication recently interviewed Reto Marazzi, general manager for Appway in Asia-Pacific. The Hong Kong office was launched last year. (To view a previous story about developments, see here.) One of the clear conclusions from the interview is that Appway sees faster-than-expected growth for its services in Asia.

What is your role?  
As the general manager for Appway in Asia, I’m doing everything I can to add another page to Appway’s remarkable success story.

What sort of services do you provide to the wealth management industry?
Appway is the global leader in client onboarding. We offer our best-in-class onboarding template on top of our digital business platform to companies in the wealth management space. With our focus on becoming a global leader in a specific domain, we have achieved recognition as the big fish in the small (but growing!) pond of client onboarding. Therefore our offering includes not only the toolset, but also a fast-growing community of developers, our implementation methodology and our industry leadership – we know how to make things happen.

Where do you see the firm adding value in the wealth management/private banking business across Asia?
We all know that the industry is constantly growing more and more complex, primarily driven by new product offerings and increasing regulations. In this environment, we ensure that institutions are taking all steps necessary to efficiently onboard a new relationship, product or client in full compliance. The ultimate goal is to put the right products and documents in front of the client – at the right time and on any channel. Our aim is to guide each organization in becoming truly client-centric; we offer our services seamlessly on any channel.

Here’s how we achieve this: Since Appway sits on top of the existing applications, we pull in the data and display it to the user on a need-to-know basis. This is based on the rules and integration points we build in Appway. In doing so, we guide the user throughout the process step by step, making sure that he not only knows what information is needed, but also what opportunities may exist for this client. The relationship manager or sales team usually drive the process, but when needed, a specialist can become part of any process step.

After the data is collected, a document or contract is printed or sent off to the client for signature or approval. As soon as the documents are back, the individuals in compliance, credit, or management or whoever else needs to be involved, will perform the necessary checks. If everything is ok, the necessary accounts will be opened automatically in the underlying system. For the approval process, we again use our business rules; in a plain vanilla opening, no specialist roles are needed for approval, whereas in complex openings (sensitive clients, cross-border cases, complex products, high risk profiles etc.), the entire organization will need to approve the case.

Appway adds value to every dimension: We boost operational efficiency by automating the low-value, high volume processes; increase quality and compliance by putting the necessary information in front of specialist in a smart way; enhance the user experience (internal and external users) by providing the right information on the channel of their own choice; and increase sales effectiveness by adding logic and rules to advisory processes in order to recommend the right product to the client when there is a greater chance that he/she will make a buy-decision.

What are the short to medium term goals for you in the region?
First and foremost, we have to make sure that our existing clients continue to be satisfied with Appway. There is nothing more powerful than happy clients in our business. And we need to continuously improve our solution by listening to our clients; identifying industry trends through focused research and insightful discussions with our partners; and by making sure that our people continue to deliver service and products of the highest quality.

On the other hand, we believe that the market for our solution is growing faster than anticipated. Therefore, we plan to grow more rapidly than expected, which means we will be putting more resources into marketing and sales in the region. More details about this will be announced soon.

The cost/income ratios are squeezing many banks throughout Asia. Can you help to deliver a solution to this?
As mentioned before - yes, we can help in many aspects. If it takes months to onboard a new relationship, you won’t generate any income during that time. In terms of cost: Besides process optimization, we believe that Appway is very well positioned to continuously adjust the business models of the banks for further digitization. Every process (step) we build can easily be made available on any device or channel, allowing banks to constantly and flexibly adjust their interaction with users and clients according to their needs.

What would you say is the benefit to wealth managers in using your products? Is it just a cost issue or are there other services that apply?
Appway is more than just a software solution. Based on our numerous global implementations of Appway Client Onboarding, we know how to deliver business value quickly and with great impact. We have acquired tremendous expertise in how to best orchestrate processes and can also consult clients on best practices regarding meaningful release packages (e.g. Appway Client Onboarding for one segment combined with KYC reviews and first account management flows). Our people are well-educated professionals that went through a selective assessment followed by weeks of internal training at Appway Academy, where they don’t just learn about the technology: they also delve deeply into client onboarding and the needs of the financial services industry.

Last but not least, Appway transforms the way organizations deal with technology; our agile project management approach includes all stakeholders continuously. Everybody involved understands what we are delivering as a team and where the project stands at any given moment. This drives new products and solutions to be released on a monthly basis and people are back to the days when doing IT projects was fun. Institutions deliver tangible results in a short period of time and add value and functionality without spending 6 months of quality assurance.

What are your hiring plans for the rest of the year?
The same as all year, for many years at Appway: Business as usual: we are hiring!

Are you working on any new products that you tell us about?
We are working to continuously expand the onboarding experience, both in terms of effectively handling regulations as well as shifting the focus to opportunity, advisory and sales. Right now, Appway Client Onboarding uses client suitability profiles. In the future, we will have more comprehensive coverage for product and cross-border suitability rules and suggestions.

What proportion of Appway’s business do you see coming from Asia in say five years’ time?
To be honest, that’s a difficult question to answer. There will be a lot more business coming from Asia, but Appway is growing very fast in other regions as well. Internal competition is fierce and we do whatever we can to contribute to the bottom line here. In addition, we do not only look at what the regions are doing, wince we have established a global account practice, which goes across regions, obviously. That’s why where deals are closed and from which location the bulk of the work is being performed does not matter as long as the client is satisfied and our business is growing.