BNP Paribas embraces external expertise to fulfil digital ambitions
Mariam Rassai, head of digital transformation and data at BNP Paribas Wealth Management, explains how strategic partnerships are key to improving the client experience
As private banks embark on the next stage of their digital journeys during 2023, their relationship with innovative, high-tech start-ups is increasingly coming under the spotlight.
In recent years, one of the criticisms of wealth managers, keen to promote their digital client ‘experience’, is that their initiatives have been shallow and without substance. Many have lacked the internal digital expertise necessary to make far-reaching changes.
This is why a handful of leading players, French bank BNP Paribas among them, have been cementing relationships with the plethora of start-ups and tech providers, now populating the financial services ecosphere.
One of these pioneering projects, developed by BNP Paribas, has been the MyChat&Trade channel. Originally launched in the French bank’s expanding Asian market in 2021, this will be rolled out in Switzerland and other European territories during 2023.
“This is a feature of our e-banking digital platform, with an integrated secure chat, which feels like a WhatsApp exchange with your relationship manager, plus multiple other conversers such a as credit and investment experts, enabling a timely exchange of ideas,” enthuses Mariam Rassai, head of digital transformation and data at BNP Paribas Wealth Management. “It can be accessed at any time. All conversations are archived, so it is also a valid channel for order placement.”
Like other ideas at the French firm, this one originated from clients rather than their advisers. “Clients told us they wanted to interact in a secure way, using a channel like WhatsApp, so we developed it at their request,” she says, promising further “conversational” projects to bring clients closer to investment decisionmakers, “notifying them in very personalised ways around different events”.
A little help from our friends
Developed in conjunction with US platform provider Moxo, the service is “typical” of projects outsourced to external developers, says Ms Rassai. “This has been part of our strategy over the past year, sourcing and establishing strategic partnerships,” with “well-positioned” firms, able to build new communication channels and improve the experience of clients.
“We now see ourselves as more of an orchestrator of experience. It would take years to develop this ourselves, and we don’t have the skills internally,” she admits.
The wealth unit already enjoys 10 key strategic partnerships, also encompassing services such as electronic signatures, in conjunction with Docusign, and strategic asset allocation, with French start-up Raise Partner.
A collaboration with UK company City Falcon allows BNP Paribas to aggregate externally-written articles, from media organisations such as Reuters, the BBC and Bloomberg, selecting relevant pieces for each client segment.
Internal affairs
But not all of the schemes, designed to help boost the estimated 60 per cent of clients who are now “digitally active”, are developed with external help. Broadening access to data and ensuring its protection is a task delegated to newly appointed head of data platforms and AI, Ludan Stoeckle, instructed to improve usage of data by ultra-high net individuals and family offices. The goal is to promote knowledge around data, its visualisation and democratisation as part of the bank’s fast-changing internal culture.
Data protection and security are also quickly climbing the agenda. “Security is the main challenge for our data team,” confirms Ms Rassai. “Clients say the first thing they want from us is to keep their data safe. But the more you develop your digital channels, the more you need to invest in cyber security.”
Other key applications, such as the flagship MyImpact service, developed in 2019, were also designed using expertise from within her team. “We have a strong and robust knowhow on impact investing internally, which has allowed us to develop proprietary methodology to help understand the impact created by various investment strategies,” says Ms Rassai, describing how the group’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) team was brought in to work with her app developer.
“All we needed was a good designer and some knowhow on the SRI [socially responsible investments] side,” she says modestly, yet proudly. “It was very differentiating for us to do this internally. Other banks have now launched a similar product, but we were the first. This was real innovation for us.”
