Camille Vial, who is the CEO of Mirabaud, the Swiss private bank, and Max Chuard, CEO of Temenos, the Swiss technology firm working in the financial space, recently had a conversation on where they see tech trends going in the wealth management industry. 

We are in the midst of the greatest generational transfer of wealth in history. Over the next decades, trillions of dollars will be passed from the Baby Boomer generation to Gen-Xers (born between 1965 and 1980) and Millennials (1981 to 1996). What wealth management experience do they expect?

The answer lies in the confluence of traditional banking excellence and cutting-edge technology. We were joined by leaders from each discipline – Camille Vial the CEO of Mirabaud, a 200-year-old Swiss private bank, and Max Chuard, CEO of Temenos, the world’s leading banking platform for banks.

This news service is pleased to share this dialogue and invites feedback from readers. The usual editorial disclaimers apply. Email tom.burroughes@wealthbriefing.com

How is wealth management changing?
Camille Vial: The big change is in who is accessing it. Due to inheritance and entrepreneurship, wealth is now held with a much younger cohort, and this trend is only going to continue.

They tend to be more socially and environmentally conscious, interested in new asset classes and services for traditional actors like us, such as private equity, crypto, and placing the digital experience higher in their expectations. For banks like Mirabaud to stay relevant, we need to build hyper-personal, highly-informed, transparent and always-on experiences.

Max Chuard: This is where Temenos can add real value, because banks cannot shoulder the burden of innovation alone. Ultimately, they don’t have the technical knowledge and capabilities at scale, and nor should they. For every dollar and head count they deploy to innovation, they take resources away from their core business activities. It is much more efficient to partner with a technology provider that has the depth and breadth of functionality and services needed. And we’re seeing banks recognise this. The wealth management platform market is growing strongly, at a CAGR of 13.8 per cent, and will be worth just over $9 billion by 2028, at a CAGR of 13.8 per cent.

How does change look from a technology perspective?
Camille Vial: Adapting quickly to the demands of a new client, in a market that is increasingly competitive with the entry of neo-banks and fintechs, needed a complete redesign of our technology stack. On-premise infrastructure has become too slow and cost-inefficient to develop and launch the sort of products and experiences we want, at the pace we want.
The move to cloud solutions could only help us prepare for the future. It is a foundational element of our current transformation.

How did the collaboration between Mirabaud and Temenos emerge? 
Max Chuard: Temenos has been around for almost 30 years, and in that time we have concentrated solely on banking. We’ve got a winning combination of leading technology with the richest functionality, which translates into products recognised as industry-leading across the board by respected analysts. So when Mirabaud first approached us and explained their vision, we already had the solutions they needed. That’s the result of having had a laser focus on the sector for three decades, collaborating with over 3,000 banks and non-incumbents around the world. We help them deliver the banking services they need to give an outstanding customer experience.

Camille Vial: What we wanted from the outset was a limited set of solution providers, because that is so much more efficient than managing multiple suppliers. But equally, we were definitely not willing to compromise on individual capabilities. Mirabaud will adopt the complete suite of Temenos wealth banking capabilities. So, the choice of Temenos was really about what we needed now, and also what we will need in the future.

How can Temenos help banks adapt to the new market opportunity?
Max Chuard: There’s increasing competition and a new generation of customers that expect a human touch combined with the power of technology. Adopting the latest SaaS technology is the only way to achieve this for the long-term. And that’s why we’re seeing not only non-incumbents but also larger, traditional banks beginning their journey to SaaS.

Camille Vial: I can only speak for Mirabaud, but the global solution based on the Temenos Saas model will actually help us grow while maintaining an efficient operating model. With this new digital ecosystem, we will have the client experience tools to help us prepare personalised advice and encounters with increased efficiency, allowing us to further spend quality dialogue time with our clients. We will be able to adapt more quickly to their needs, cater for future market trends, and remain committed to our core value of delivering a passionate, personalised, human service.

Max Chuard: Personalisation comes when advanced digital technologies work in harmony. That includes data processing, analytics, customer experience, explainable AI, integration software and security. And it’s not just about having access to these capabilities, but how you access them. That’s the value of our open, composable SaaS-based platform, the Temenos Banking Cloud. It offers continued updates, which means quicker time to market, with more products launched. It scales elastically, so clients can take more platform capabilities in line with their business demand and importantly ramp down to remove costs. And with the complete service the SaaS model provides, it gives operational efficiencies from database to API end-point lowering the total cost of ownership. 

Because it is cloud-based, it integrates continuous access to all the innovations, as they are released, putting our clients even further ahead of the curve. So they can continue delivering exceptional customer experience. Both today and in the future.