Ned Phillips, co-founder and CEO of Singapore-based Bambu, discusses the state of robo-advisory business in Asia.

Based in Singapore, Bambu is one of several leading B2B wealthtechs, designing A.I.-led investment solutions for financial institutions to serve to their consumers.

Phillips speaks with DigFin‘s Jame DiBiasio about growth in the business, its impact on banks’ traditional role as distributors of investment products, and how it is changing the way asset management companies see their role. 

He concludes with why robo needs to stay boring even if that means short-term underperformance for the industry.

• Timecodes:
• 0:00 – Ned Phillips, Bambu
• 1:10 – State of wealthtech, AUM still small but gaining momentum
• 4:38 – Why banks are worried about robo’s business model, pace of business, customer experience
• 7:31 – Digitizing wealth management, fees versus customer retention
• 8:51 – What are the long-term advantages of banks and asset managers, how do they remain relevant
• 11:30 – Asset managers acquiring robo-advisors, and going direct to consumers
• 13:54 – Retirement-focused products stay boring, and use of data to understand customers
• 16:38 – Embedded finance, data sharing, and robo, products and incentives to reward long-term investing
• 18:50 – Changing long-term investing behavior, what are the appropriate goals and how to reward meeting them
• 20:55 – Robo-advisors versus mobile brokers, the dangers of gamification, and why robo businesses may disappoint
• 24:33 – The endurance of Asia’s bank-distribution model for funds

Coenraad Jonker is CEO of Tyme Bank, a neo-bank that originated in South Africa and is now serving customers in the Philippines.

Coen speaks with Jame DiBiasio about how challenger banks can be profitable while pursuing goals around financial inclusion, as well as the business, data and tech models required to succeed.

Tyme has a hybrid model involving in-store kiosks that gives it a twist in the market. He outlines the factors that made Tyme decide to enter the Philippines and why it is also now looking to get a license in Pakistan, and concludes by thinking about what digital banking may look like in the coming years.

• Timecodes:
• 0:00 – Coen Jonker, Tyme Bank
• 1:24 – Coen’s transition from traditional banking to digital banking
• 2:14 – How challenger banks can make money: cost base, tech, user experience
• 4:07 – Balancing a digital bank within a regulated environment, banks versus fintechs
• 5:46 – Funding sources, deposits, transactions
• 7:58 – What differentiates Tyme as a neo-bank
• 10:36 – Tyme’s physical kiosks
• 12:46 – Making a neo-bank a customer’s primary account
• 14:11 – The opportunity in the Philippines…
• 15:58 – …versus other emerging markets in Asia
• 17:36 – Competing with other digital banks in the Philippines
• 19:51 – Managing relations with a powerful distribution partner
• 20:45 – The strategy behind entering Pakistan
• 22:37 – Open banking, data in and data out, data use cases
• 25:48 – Scaling digital banking across countries
• 28:21 – 5G, IoT and the digital bank of the future

Custody for digital assets remains a hurdle for licensed financial institutions. Swen Werner and Irfan Ahmad of State Street Digital speak with Jame DiBiasio about the challenges of a traditional custodian building a new way of doing business in the world of digital assets.

The premise of peer-to-peer crypto is for users to "be your own bank". But institutions have compliance, risk, and licensing requirements that require a third-party custodian.

There are also issues around how to reimagine custody for assets that are currently either stored in hot wallets, exposed to risk, or offline in cold wallets and inert.

Building solutions for traditional investors is also complicated by the fast-moving nature of crypto markets. But as traditional players in securities and asset services such as State Street to advance the nature of custody for digital assets, they are also bringing those innovations back to the world of traditional securities.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Swen Werner and Irfan Ahmad of State Street Digital

1:00 - Challenges of custody in digital assets, building a platform for institutions

4:07 - Making P2P tech work for regulated institutions, processes versus code, new concepts of workflows

7:44 - Regulation and what is permitted in different jurisdictions, how regulators perceive ownership

10:31 - With custody solutions, how big will inflows be from traditional investors?

11:52 - What kind of digital assets will be in demand, and for what purposes - building for new transaction models

14:06 - Security and overcoming the division between hot and cold wallets

15:43 - Multiparty computation, how it works, risk management in traditional custody versus relying on onchain security

19:02 - How traditional institutions keep pace with change in digital assets

21:38 - Agreeing to definitions and taxonomy in digital assets

24:41 - What standards does State Street Digital hope to set?

27:48 - Convergence between crypto and traditional markets, bringing digital-asset infrastructure to the traditional securities world.

How close are financial institutions to operating on blockchain rails – and why do they want to be there? Nicole Olson and Patrick Campos speak with Jame DiBiasio about foundational changes.

Nicole is with State Street Digital, the new division at the global custodian bank, working on product design and innovation. She discusses how State Street is approaching blockchain to serve asset managers and asset owners, and how the technology is sweeping through the industry.

Joining her is Patrick from Securrency, a blockchain-related technology company that works with banks such as State Street to help build the tools so they can integrate traditional operations with blockchain models, from DeFi automation to compliance.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Nicole Olsen and Patrick Campos

1:06 - The big questions in DLT and tokenization for buy sides

4:11 - Crypto innovations adapted for institutional DLT

6:36 - Are banks playing offense or defense?

9:07 - Building hybrid apps that can interface with blockchains without being native

12:57 - Financial institutions are still stuck on mainframes so how can they ever do blockchain?

16:00 - Public versus private chains, ecosystems and interoperability

18:29 - How to create interoperability, standards, and "SWIFT on steroids"

21:52 - Turning the role of intermediaries inside out, helping clients know the asset rather than reconcile positions

23:16 - How ready are buy sides, do fund management CEOs really understand digital assets?

26:03 - Next milestones, from private markets to a digital dollar

Alex Manson is a leader at SC Ventures, the fintech venture arm of Standard Chartered Bank.

He speaks with Jame DiBiasio about SCV's structure, which is partly corporate venture, partly venture capital fund, and partly an incubator of the bank's own "intrapreneurs". SCV now has about 30 portfolio companies, from trade finance to digital assets.

Alex discusses how SCV defines success, its impact on the parent bank, its investments in licensed digital banking businesses, and what's next.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Alex Manson, SC Ventures

1:31 - Lessons from investing in fintech companies

4:00 - SC Ventures' impact on Standard Chartered Bank

6:07 - Working with fintechs, whether third party or via SCV, from onboarding to projects

9:13 - SCV's model versus classic venture capital

12:23 - How agile are fintechs spun out of the bank, are they independent enough?

15:34 - The business logic of how SCV builds portfolios of fintech companies

19:27 - Portfolio companies versus platforms, and the role of Mox and Trust virtual banks in the SCV stable

23:41 - Challenges for virtual banks versus tech companies - market fit, scale

29:35 - External financing and exits

31:00 - What's next!

Scott Treloar is founder of Noviscient, a fintech that is creating digital solutions for asset managers.

Treloar, who has a background in asset management, discusses why it's been difficult for the industry to go digital, and what Novsicient is bringing to the space.

He describes how technology makes it easier to allow emerging managers – often the ones with the best performance compared to large, more marketing-oriented businesses – to provide their strategies to big institutional investors.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Scott Treloar, Noviscient

1:13 - Asset management companies are struggling with going digital

2:52 - Turning information flows into digital info - how Noviscient does it, adding value to AM clients, helping AMs with operational efficiency

6:14 - How fintechs can help asset managers move beyond legacy processes

9:54 - Versus traditional outsourcing of middle office functions to banks

11:30 - New tech stacks, open source, modular plug-n-play

13:32 - Who are Noviscient's clients?

16:05 - The needs of scale and giving large investors access to small and emerging managers

21:40 - Using cloud and AI

24:10 - Sequential decision analytics, big data versus structured data

26:37 - Catalyzing deep change in the asset-management industry

Miles Wen is CEO of Hong Kong startup Fano Labs, a developer of deep networks and other AI tools to understand voices - to translate what people say, as well as add insights around the context of those conversations. It's a service that financial institutions are using today for monitoring wealth managers, among other things.

Wen speaks with Jame DiBiasio about the state of AI today, how banks are integrating (or struggling to integrate) AI solutions, regtech's growth prospects, and Fano Labs' going IPO.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Miles Wen and Fano Labs' work with AI

3:05 - Generating insights from people speaking multiple languages

5:44 - Real world uses for AI and regtech, including how firms sell investment products

10:48 - How special is Fano Labs' work and how different is its business model?

15:53 - Evolution of AI and deep learning models

18:29 - Working with banks in fintech/AI

19:25 - Fano's bank clients and creating new use cases

23:46 - How good are banks at integrating AI solutions?

28:04 - Regulators pushing for regtech solutions

30:05 - Fano Labs' IPO plans

Stacey Lacy is managing director at Citi where she leads its technology and operations for Asia, including consumer and corporate banking, capital markets, and wealth management.

A 25-year veteran at the bank, she is helping the bank digitize across all of its products, so as to better serve its clients and improve time to market.

Lacy spoke with DigFIn's Jame DiBiasio about migrating operation to cloud, using data to personalize services, navigating Asia's data sovereignty laws, and partnering with fintechs. She concludes by explaining where financial institutions lie along the curve of next-gen tech, including AI, blockchain, and 5G.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Stacey Lacy, Citi

1:59 - Digital transformation at Citi as it pivots out of some consumer markets

3:15 - Adopting cloud and cloud infrastructure

5:01 - Digitizing the client onboarding process

6:29 - Client data becoming an asset

8:37 - Legacy systems and transitions to the new

10:15 - Seeking operational efficiency in diverse Asia region

11:57 - Citi's approach to cloud architecture

13:38 - Personalization for HNW and corporate clients

15:00 - Asia's data sovereignty laws, and compliant solutions

17:35 - Partnering with fintechs, sourcing them, onboarding

21:34 - What fintech solutions is Lacy looking for today

22:26 - Are banks resisting digital transformation, and their end-to-end strategy

23:40 - Quick tour of next-gen tech, AI, digital assets, tokenization, 5G, IoT

28:36 - Talent and how to keep learning

Today in many countries we can send a payment locally with just a phone number or email address – so why can't companies do the same internationally?

Navin Gupta, MD of Ripple for South Asia and MENA, speaks with DigFin's Jame DiBiasio about the technological and business race to solve this massive problem.

He talks about the challenges, the benefits of a blockchain-based solution, the impact if we see central-bank digital currencies appear, dealing with regulators, and Ripple's progress.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Navin Gupta, Ripple and his career in banking, startups, and tech

3:15 - Trends in global payments, demand for instant settlements for crossborder transactions

4:34 - Why do we need blockchain for this problem, benefits of decentralization, combing messaging with value transfer

6:44 - Ripple's consensus mechanism, just how decentralized is it, its service offering, impact on liquidity

10:26 - Is there value for banks to retain their nostro/vostro correspondent accounts if they have RTGS?

12:13 - Does RTGS require a cryptocurrency to operate, how does this scale the network

14:40 - Impact on Ripple's model if central banks issue digital currencies

16:47 - Aftermath of this year's crypto meltdown on regulation, due diligence

19:31 - What's "good" regulation mean? Examples?

22:16 - Bank adoption of RippleNet versus use by fintechs

24:23 - Ripple's legal battle with the US SEC over XRP

25:33 - Asia markets where Ripple is gaining traction, or not

26:55 - How long until large crossborder payments are just one click?

29:40 - Reaching escape velocity

Jennifer O'Rourke is head of digital design and strategy at Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. She discusses DTCC's latest blockchain experiment, Project Lithium, to support the post-trade processing of a "digital dollar", should the Congress and Federal Reserve promote a US central-bank digital currency.

Timecodes:

0:00 - Jennifer O'Rourke, DTCC

1:10 - Impact of innovation on financial services

2:55 - Lessons from previous blockchain experiments

5:01 - Why blockchain technology?

7:19 - Project Lithium and supporting a digital dollar

9:10 - Versus modernizing America's legacy infrastructure

12:33 - Industry demand for instant settlement

16:02 - What comes first, digital securities or digital cash?

19:20 - Interoperability among CBDCs and other assets

21:40 - Lessons from Asia's pilots

24:29 - How to create standards with new tech

27:30 - Immutability, and public vs private chains

29:31 - Stablecoins and regulation

32:20 - How to measure Lithium's success

25:42 - Is the US at risk of falling behind China?