Understanding the need to add value for the end-customer, Anurag Pandey, General Manager & Head, Asia Pacific, additiv

By Puja Sharma

Headquartered in Switzerland, tech firm additiv, and ATRAM, an asset and wealth manager in the Philippines, won the Best Wealth Management & Private Banking Implementation award in the latest Global FinTech Innovation Awards for their joint development of Wealth360

Deanno Basas, Chief Experience Officer, ATRAM Group, noted that the Wealth360 project ‘reflects ATRAM’s commitment to innovation and client-centric solutions, solidifying our position as leaders in the Philippine market. We look forward to further advancing digital wealth and asset management alongside our partner, additiv’.

Singapore-based Anurag Pandey, appointed General Manager and Head, Asia Pacific (APAC) region by additiv in January 2024, explains the story behind additiv and ATRAM’s collaboration.

“The most important thing for us is working with our client, or our partner in this case, to ensure that whatever we are delivering actually makes a difference to the end consumers. When we started working with ATRAM, one of the most important aspects that we took care of was, how do we add value to the end consumers? We sat down with them, defined what is necessary, what are the most critical aspects, and then worked alongside that. Therefore, what you see on the ground is a solution that works for ATRAM internally and works for us in terms of how we are able to deliver the solution. More importantly, it is something that adds significant value to ATRAM’s clients.”

What were the inputs that were required?

“We always start with what is it that the consumer values most? Once we get a sense of what we want to deliver to the end consumers, we then decide what’s the best way for us to proceed on this. What are your core capabilities? How do we ensure that your core capabilities are being used to best deliver the solution for the end consumers? It’s about understanding the needs of the clients. It’s about understanding the capabilities of our partners and then ensuring that technology meets those demands, whether it’s on the front end, user experience, or on the operation side.

“For a client like ATRAM, which manages a massive portfolio, both in terms of value and volume, you need to ensure that the operations teams are not overwhelmed, that they are able to deliver the services with the least hassle possible. So, through this process, you’ve created something for the client that is going to be of value to the consumer.”

We live in a dynamic world. How do you keep the solution up to date?

“Wealth-as-a-Service or Finance-as-a-Service is a solution that needs to be continuously updated, continuously evolving. From our perspective, the Philippines is one of the most important markets for us. We need to always ensure that we are up to date with the latest trends in the markets.

“So, for example, we do have a core platform that gets upgraded and the upgrades are automatically offered to all our partners. But at the same time, we check continuously on what is needed. Based on that, we create our own solutions, work with our partners to enhance our solution, to ensure that we are always up to date.

“It’s a case of being close to the consumer, ensuring that we can anticipate what is needed, and then deliver to the client. To put that in perspective, today, as in 2024, we know what the potential trends are in the industry in 2024 and moving into 2025. We are already working and talking to our client, talking to our partners to say what do we need? What are the enhancements we need? How do we change the game in certain ways? Those discussions are ongoing, and we know what we are going to deliver towards the end of the year. It’s being dynamic. It’s being close to the consumer. It’s being close to your partners, and continuously evolving the propositions that you’re taking to the market.

Can you explain what you mean by additiv’s concept of embedded wealth?

“To put it simply, consumers don’t want banks. Consumers want banking, which also means that consumers do not look for buying a fund. They are looking for a solution which involves saving for retirement, which involves saving for a mortgage, or for their children’s future, or anything of that sort.

“People are essentially looking for a solution to a problem that they have. When we contextualize it, what that means to us is we need to be able to offer financial services, in this case, wealth, contextually and at the time of need. Contextually means whenever people are buying something, they need something which is relevant for them. I’ll give an example. It is very difficult for somebody who’s not making a lot of money to save money at the end of the month, or end of the quarter, or end of the year, to put towards their retirement savings. But it is easier for them to take some small amount of money in their day-to-day lives and then put it towards a specific goal. It is easier to save a dollar a day than $30 at the end of the month. What that means is you need to be able to embed financial services, in this case, wealth, into day-to-day life.

“As you spend, you can save. As you are doing certain things, you can increase your financial well-being as well. From our perspective, embedded wealth means providing contextual wealth solutions at the point of need, at the time of need.”

Is the biggest challenge facing the banking sector actually addressing how to go about working with and for the consumer?

“The biggest challenge that banks or financial institutions face today is providing access to relevant services to the consumers while still being relevant themselves. That is where the embedded finance concept comes in.

“How do we evolve ourselves to get into a scenario where we are closer to the consumer, but at the same time, we are completely dissociating our identity as we are as a monolithic financial institution to something which is very close to the consumer. So that’s where I guess it’s also a mentality issue at times.

“When we work with clients like ATRAM, that’s where we see the biggest difference. They know that they must do things differently. That is what translates into a successful business model.”

What future business opportunities do you see?

“Over the last year we have been on a journey of successfully transforming the business model for different organisations, and we have had discussions with a variety of banks. One thing which has been consistent is that banks do realise that things are not going to be the same. Potentially what we disagree or where the industry disagrees as a whole is what is the way forward. From our perspective, what we have seen change in the past one year is that more and more banks are now looking at opportunities which are outside of their current way of doing business.

“Banks have been spending a significant amount of money on client acquisition, especially on the wealth side. They do realise that this model is not something which is going to give them a lot more. Even if they pump a lot more money in, this is probably not a scalable model. So, what is consistent across the thinking in different banks is that they believe that the model has to change.

“For a lot of our clients, we have seen the thinking shift. We see a bit of consensus in our discussions, probably more this year than last year around embedded finance and Finance-as-a-Service.

“The way we look at financial services, we believe in having something which is integrated, yet where you can differentiate the financial institution to the orchestration of the process, to the delivery channel. If you can dissociate these three things and create a model where who delivers and how it is delivered are completely separate, that transforms the value chain.

“We do believe there is a significant business opportunity for us in the way we currently think. We firmly believe in the model that we are going ahead with. And it just shows from how many discussions we are having with different financial institutions who say, yes, this makes sense to us. We see this as an opportunity, and this is where we want to go.”