BSO, the global pioneering infrastructure and connectivity provider, announced today that it has opened a new office in New Jersey with 20 staff members.

After expanding to the US market over five years ago and experiencing steady growth, the new office follows a year during which BSO has established itself as a leader in capital markets connectivity in North America. The business has seen a 40% year on year growth based on demand from high-frequency trading firms, brokers and banks seeking to connect to the main financial exchanges in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. BSO’s radio frequency network provides ultra-low latency connectivity to leading exchanges including CBOE, CME, NYSE, ICE, Nasdaq and Toronto’s TMX.

To meet demand, BSO acquired Apsara Networks in 2017 and has since expanded its network to reach over 240 global points of presence (PoPs) and more than 40 cloud on-ramps. In addition, the company has also developed low latency cloud-to-cloud and cloud connectivity solutions to support the cryptocurrency and digital asset trading communities.

“The US and Canada are the key venues in global capital markets,” said Michael Ourabah, CEO of BSO. “As we emerge from the pandemic, we expect further demand for our ultra-low latency and crypto connectivity solutions. And our office in New Jersey will be critical to meeting this demand.”

“With a growing team of sales, product and engineering specialists we needed a bigger space,” said Stephen McConnell, Head of Sales Americas at BSO “The new offices will bring us closer to our clients and we believe face-to-face contact with customers and staff will continue to be essential despite new virtual ways of working. The new office is a landmark moment in BSO’s global expansion.”

• 68% of European financial executives say the pandemic has increased their focus on open banking (Vs 72% in the UK)
• This shift is propelling banks to concentrate their efforts on the creation of digital services, improving the customer experience and restoring profitability
• The UK continues to lead the charge in digital innovation with greater acknowledgement that the digital shift is permanent (56% Vs the European average of 41%) and a bigger focus on open banking compared to its European counterparts

 A new report published today from open banking platform Tink suggests that COVID-19 has irreversibly increased the shift to digital financial services.

As a result of the pandemic, financial institutions have been forced to adapt to more digital ways of serving their customers, while people across all age groups have had to become familiar with using more digital services. This has led to the digitalisation of financial services being fast-tracked – and 41% of European financial executives believe the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the financial services industry will be permanent.

Open banking gets a boost

Even in light of the digital transformation efforts that have been set in motion over the past few years, 65% of financial executives across Europe still believe that banks need to increase their speed of innovation. This digitalisations shift has resulted in an increased appetite for financial institutions to leverage technology and find solutions to new challenges as a result of Covid-19. In fact, more than two-thirds (68%) of European financial executives say their interest in open banking has increased during the pandemic.

The report also shows that the pandemic has focused European financial institutions on three key business priorities. Three-quarters (74%) of executives see an increased need to enhance their digital services – to streamline onboarding and manage more customers digitally. While 70% are also focused on the customer experience – to differentiate themselves from competitors and boost customer engagement in an increasingly digital world. For 68% of financial executives, there is an increased focus on restoring profitability, through automating and streamlining business processes.

Lasting long-term impact or short-term blip? 

However, despite the big shifts the financial services industry has witnessed during the pandemic, 59% of financial executives still see the transition to digital as a short-term blip and expect things to return to normal. Similarly, only two-thirds (67%) of respondents think that Covid has increased business risk, despite clear signs of looming economic danger on the horizon – with households under increasing financial distress, non-performing loans set to rise and businesses at risk of bankruptcy when governmental support runs out. This suggests that some European financial institutions are at risk of sleepwalking into a future of unforeseen challenges that may have a severe impact on their customers, unless they recognise the significant and lasting impact that Covid has had on the financial industry. 

Daniel Kjellén, co-founder and CEO, Tink, said: “The pandemic has forced many executives to remedy the lack of personal interaction with customers by focusing on delivering digital services. But this has also provided a way of creating more value for the customer, while increasing insights to identify or even predict potential risks and new demands. Financial institutions have seen that open banking technology presents opportunities to increase the speed of innovation, introduce new commercial streams and revenue opportunities, while enabling operational efficiencies that will benefit their business long term.

“But there are also many executives who are expecting things to go back to normal, who will need a plan on how to respond and where to focus their digitalisation efforts as the transformation of financial services continues to pick up pace. We have set out to help empower the pioneers of financial services – the banks that are looking at technology not as a cost, but as an opportunity to improve many of the things they do today. How they operate internally, how they deliver their products, and how they will serve their customers in a post-pandemic world.”

The UK: leading the way in the digital shift

Out of all the financial executives surveyed in Europe, those in the UK were the most ardent believers that the digital financial shift will be permanent (56% Vs the European average of 41%). It’s therefore unsurprising, but encouraging, to see that 75% of UK respondents feel that the pandemic has increased the need to enhance digital services. And with 88% saying they believe that the pandemic has increased the focus on customer experience (compared to the European average of 70%), it’s likely that innovation within financial services will be high on their agendas as we move forward.  

Rafa Plantier, Head of UK and Ireland at Tink, commented: “The UK leads the way in believing the digital shift in financial services is here to stay. In fact, the UK is ahead of the curve on interest in open banking increasing during the pandemic, allowing them to improve digital services, level-up the customer experience and bring greater profitability to their organisations. This reflects the UK’s position as a leading hub for fintech innovation and as pioneers of the open banking movement.”

Nutanix, a leader in private, hybrid and multicloud computing, today announced the launch of the Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program, further extending the benefits of the Elevate Partner Program to now include service providers globally. The program empowers service provider partners – including managed and cloud service providers – to build highly-differentiated hybrid and multicloud services delivering increased profitability and faster time-to-market.

As many organisations look for opportunities to simplify their IT operations, IDC forecasts the managed cloud services market to grow to $101.1B by 2024↿. With this opportunity, comes the challenge of service providers meeting increasingly individualised customer demands while staying profitable. The Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program helps service providers improve margins and agility by addressing the lock-in and minimum commitment requirements encountered in traditional service provider vendor models and programs. 

“As the demand for managed and cloud services surges, service providers are uniquely positioned to assist an organisation’s growth, optimisation initiatives, and digital transformation needs,” said Christian Alvarez, SVP Worldwide Channels at Nutanix. “Through the Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program, we are rewarding our partners’ commitment in delivering high value IT cloud service offerings​ and helping them maximise profitability and increase their revenue growth potential through premium offerings.”

Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program Details

This service provider program adds two partnership levels to Nutanix Elevate: Authorised Service Provider and Professional Service Provider. Authorised Service Providers will include partners new to Nutanix or those delivering Nutanix services to small to mid-market organisations. Professional Service Provider will deliver differentiated services for enterprise organisations. Partners who join the program will be able to take advantage of all the benefits outlined in the Elevate Service Provider Program Guide including training, Not For Resale (NFR) and Nutanix XLAB software licenses, and enablement support. Professional Service Provider partners will be able to take advantage of expanded support from Nutanix including marketing materials, potential market development funds, sales tools, goal-based financial incentives and rebates, and personalised insights in Nutanix’s Partner Portal.

Key advantages of Nutanix Solutions and Elevate Service Provider Program include:

•     Improved Bottom Line: Simplified pricing options, no minimum commitment levels​ or mandatory product purchases help deliver increased profitability for service providers. Nutanix service providers also benefit from significantly lower management overhead with Nutanix, compared to competitors, ultimately delivering a highly capable and cost effective HCI solution.
•     Increased Top Line and Fast​er Time-to-Market: The simplicity of Nutanix solutions can also help deliver faster time-to-market thanks to more than 80% faster deployment. Nutanix service providers can also onboard and rapidly scale new services including private, hybrid and multicloud, Desktop as a Service (DaaS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), Database as a Service (DBaaS), and more. Additionally, Nutanix software licenses can be used by service providers at their customer site, in the service provider’s environment, or on Nutanix Clusters running in public cloud environments, including AWS, AWS GovCloud and with support for Microsoft Azure under development, giving their customers a fast path to hybrid cloud.
•     Simplicity: A hallmark of Nutanix solutions, and a key driver behind the company’s average NPS score of 90 for the last seven years, is simplicity. Service providers will be able to deliver IT services, at any scale, with simple one-click deployment, upgrades, scaling, self-healing capabilities, troubleshooting and more with Nutanix. This will allow our service provider partners to realise nearly 60% more efficient IT infrastructure management, freeing up significant time to focus on innovation and supporting broader business priorities. Additionally, service providers can take advantage of auto-metering, enabling them to provide granular billing to their customers.

Nutanix is running a Service Provider Starter Pack promotional offer for new partners joining the Elevate Service Provider Program. This promotional offer includes training, certification and the right Nutanix software to help our partners bring their differentiated services to production and start generating revenue. This offer is available immediately.

The Nutanix Elevate Service Provider program is available now to providers worldwide. More information on how to sign up, accompanying benefits, and the program guide  are available at https://www.nutanix.com/partners/become-a-partner. Partners can also learn more about the program by signing up for the upcoming webinar on June 30, 2021, here.

Supporting quotes about the launch of the NESPP: 

• Cyxtera: “Thanks to the successful partnership we’ve built with Nutanix, Cyxtera’s customers can now deploy Nutanix Cloud Platform on our automated, on-demand infrastructure platform in more than half of our world-class datacentres. The Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program offers us the ability to continue growing together. We are very excited to provide our customers increased flexibility by eliminating the complexities of procurement, logistics, and capital equipment management as a strategic Nutanix partner for hosted private infrastructure via Cyxtera’s Enterprise Bare Metal offering.” – Russell Cozart, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Strategy, Cyxtera

• HKT: “At HKT, we are continuously enhancing our managed service offerings of integrated solutions to support the unique business needs of Hong Kong enterprises. Nutanix is a trusted and reliable partner, which performs admirably in terms of technology and support. With the new Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program, together we will be able to deliver greater value and innovation for our customers’ digital transformation journey, in a way that can best meet their business demands across hybrid and multicloud.” – Tom Chan, Managing Director of HKT Commercial Group, HKT

• OneNeck: "OneNeck IT Solutions partnered with Nutanix to power our ReliaCloud Edge, a hosted private cloud, because Nutanix technologies provided the scalability to meet our customer’s IT needs with the reliability, security and high performance that their business demands.  As we continue to expand our partnership with new services powered by Nutanix, the option to join the Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program offers us additional benefits that will help us expand our customers' ability to consume our data center services.” – Ted Wiessing, SVP Technology and Chief Security & Privacy Officer, OneNeck

•  OVH: “Partnering with Nutanix is a significant step forward to better address hosted private cloud’s growing demand with a high level of technical solutions. Today we are announcing a great partnership between OVHcloud and Nutanix to offer a breadth of infrastructure options, with an eye toward future innovations, for our customers. Leading hosted private cloud solutions offered by OVHcloud continue to gain momentum in the market. Together with Nutanix and the new Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program, OVHcloud is embarking on the mission to deliver next-generation hosted private cloud service offerings with a strong feature set offering performances and security that address a broad range of use cases for companies of all sizes at the best price.” – Michel Paulin, CEO, OVHcloud

• TierPoint: “TierPoint is all about meeting our customers where they are on their journeys to IT transformation and delivering successful business outcomes to them. We picked Nutanix to build managed private cloud and cloud-to-cloud recovery solutions because of the simplicity, stability, and scalability of the Nutanix platform. Tierpoint joining the Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program will make it even easier to add and deliver services that power our customer’s success and will continue to allow us to work hand-in-hand to find ways to advance the objectives of our shared clients.” – Brian Anderson, VP of Product Development, TierPoint

• Yotta: “Yotta chose Nutanix to power our managed private cloud services because of its well-architected platform and portfolio. Nutanix delivers performance, security, and control at scale for our customer’s mission critical business applications. We are excited for the Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program as we continue to expand our partnership to deliver leading data centre services to our customers at the most reasonable costs.” - Sunil Gupta, Managing Partner & CEO, Yotta

1.     Source: IDC, Worldwide Managed Cloud Services Forecast, 2020–2024: An Extraction View of Technology Outsourcing Services Markets (IDC #US45926720, September 2020)

Pannovate, an established and award-winning digital solution provider for the financial services sector, has been certified by Visa to join the innovative Visa Ready partner programme. The ‘Certified by Visa’ mark is trusted recognition by the global payments ecosystem and enables Pannovate to accelerate its growth by providing digital-first solutions, and access to Visa’s products and go-to-market expertise. Visa Ready certification will enable Pannovate to differentiate its banking as a service solution, Launchpad, establish trust with clients, and expand its business with the Visa Ready seal of approval.

Pannovate is pleased to be included in the Visa Ready programme. Being recognised and participating in this global network is a strategic step forward. Pannovate’s Launchpad range highlights Pannovate’s ability to answer market demand with a turn-key solution for customers looking to go to market quickly and cost effectively. To this day, Launchpad is unique in the way it is built. It is the first app to be designed for the payments industry, by a payments expert, in-house, rather than a classic app builder with little knowledge or experience in the payments industry. Pannovate’s dedication to excellence is evidenced in the slick and attractive user interface in all Launchpad products, that satisfies even the most exacting consumer demands.

“We are delighted to be working with the Visa Ready Program. This endorsement is a key strategic step for us. It also supports our global initiative to provide robust products that are built to enable quick and easy integration with a wide variety of suppliers to create solutions with the best business fit.”

Pavle Ljujic, CEO of Pannovate

This month virtual network service provider Atlas VPN released a new security feature called Data Breach Monitor. The new feature, currently available on iOS and Android platforms, helps its users check if their personal information has been leaked online.

First, users are prompted to scan their email addresses with Data Breach Monitor. The tool then searches through leaked databases to check whether the data there matches the user's information.

If matching information is found, the user is presented with a list of past and current security breaches associated with their online accounts. In addition, the list includes information about when and where the breach occurred and what type of information was leaked.

The leaked data can include anything from credentials such as email address, username, and password to social security numbers or other types of personal information.

The tool also notifies users of new leaks affecting their personal data so they can take immediate action and stop malicious actors from exploiting their online accounts.

"In the first quarter of 2021 alone, more than 5 billion records were leaked in various data breaches. These numbers are alarming, so in addition to a VPN, we wanted to offer our users an even broader set of tools to protect their online security," said the Chief Operating Officer at Atlas VPN.

While all Atlas VPN users can take advantage of the Data Breach monitor to boost their online security, Premium users get full access to the feature. It means they can connect multiple email addresses to the tool to safeguard all their online accounts.

Far from operating in the shadows, criminals disguise their activities as legitimate businesses to hide illicit funds. Failing to understand who you are doing business with, or the status of the client counterparty (KYC) or the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO), increases your organisations’ risk of financial crime or reputational damage.

Join our latest webinar on Tuesday 15th June at 14:00 BST with renowned MoneyLand author and journalist Oliver Bullough, award-winning compliance officer Oonagh van den Berg, and senior AML policy officer at Transparency International Laure Brillaud, to discuss why the UK is still attractive to global crooks and Kleptocrats; what can be achieved and looking at the best approach for identifying and monitoring UBOs.

Key topics

• How big is the problem
• How Beneficial Ownerships are used for Money laundering
• Proactive approach to transparency
• Impact of regulation  
• Best practice to verify and monitor UBOs 

The Speakers

Oliver Bullough

Author of the MoneyLand and Journalist

Oliver Bullough is a journalist and author from Wales who moved in 1999 to Russia to work as a journalist. He worked first for local newspapers in St Petersburg and Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), then for Reuters. He stayed in Moscow, mainly reporting on the war in Chechnya, until 2006.

Since leaving Reuters, he has written three books. The first – Let Our Fame be Great – is about the peoples of the North Caucasus, and his travels to find their scattered communities. The second –The Last Man in Russia – is a biography of a dissident Orthodox priest, whose life closely mirrors that of the Russian nation in the 20th century, and sheds light on the demographic tragedy of modern Russia. The third is called Moneyland and tells the story of how the world’s super-rich have broken free of democratic control and formed their own nomadic global community.

Oonagh van den Berg

Managing Director and Founder

Raw Compliance

Oonagh van den Berg is a Northern Irish award-winning compliance professional. She is a recognised Subject Matter Expert in various areas of compliance, is a passionate trainer, and an advocate of increased automation, ethical behaviour and sustainable culture building.

Oonagh began her career as a legal intern at the European Central Bank in Frankfurt. She then joined JP Morgan in London as a product legal documentation specialist, before moving into compliance and working in various roles across a number of international Banks. After a number of years working in banking, Oonagh moved to consultancy working for Protiviti, before stepping out on her own through the launch of her boutique compliance consultancy firm Virtual Risk Solutions VRS Limited, where she is the Founder and Managing Director, providing compliance consultancy services including training and managed services to global clients including traditional banking, FinTech’s, and governmental bodies. She also acts as an advisor on various policy decision committees and public-private partnerships.

Laure Brillaud

Senior Policy Officer – Anti-Money Laundering

Transparency International

Laure joined Transparency International EU in 2016 and leads the work on anti-money laundering. Her priority areas include beneficial ownership transparency, the role of intermediaries in AML, AML supervision, golden visa market regulations, asset recovery, etc. Prior to that, she worked at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In particular, she conducted policy analysis and outreach on corruption in the extractive sector as well as other key development issues such as global inequalities and social cohesion. Laure holds a Masters’ degree in Engineering from Mines ParisTech as well as dual Masters’ degree in International Affairs and Public Administration from Science Po Paris and Columbia University.

Even before the pandemic, the global digital banking market had been growing rapidly, with millions of people choosing an app or web-based bank over a traditional high-street financial institution.

However, the COVID-19 had accelerated the shift to digital banking like never before, as customer expectations changed during the pandemic.

According to data presented by AksjeBloggen.com, the global digital banking market is expected to hit a $2.5trn transaction value in 2021, a massive 70% increase in a year.

The Number of Users Almost Tripled Amid the Pandemic

Digital banks, also known as neobanks or online banks, changed the way people handle and manage money. These app or web-based banks offer a line of mobile banking services that can be used entirely from smartphones, which especially became useful amid the COVID-19 lockdowns.

In 2019, the global digital banking market hit $836.5bn transaction value, revealed the Statista data. After the pandemic struck, the transaction value jumped by 81% YoY to over $1.5trn. However, the following years are set to witness even more impressive growth. Next year, digital banking is forecast to become a $4trn worth industry. By 2025, the transaction value of all digital banks worldwide is expected to double and hit nearly $8.3trn.

The number of people using online banking services has also surged. Statistics show the number of users almost tripled to 141 million since the pandemic struck. In the next four years, this figure is set to jump to 334 million globally.

The US to Generate One-Third of Total Transaction Value in 2021, UK Market to Grow by 70% YoY

In global comparison, the United States is the leader in digital banking services. Home to some of the world's largest neobanks like Chime, SoFi, and Robinhood, the US market has multiplied over the years. In 2021, the transaction value of the US digital banking market is expected to jump by 62% and reach $820bn, or one-third of all transactions this year.

However, the United Kingdom, as the second-largest market globally, is expected to witness even more impressive growth in 2021, with transaction value growing by 70% to $430.7bn. The largest digital bank in Europe and the second-largest globally, UK`s Revolut, has also grown rapidly over the years. In February 2018, the London-based challenger with the highest number of customers of any European online bank announced that they had hit 1.5 million users. This figure grew to 10 million last year.

As the world's third-largest digital banking market, Russia is expected to hit a $313.7bn transaction value this year. Brazil and Germany follow with $178.6bn and $138.1bn, respectively.

The full story can be read here: https://aksjebloggen.com/digital-banking-market-to-hit-2-5t-transaction-value-in-2021-a-massive-70-jump-in-a-year/

GovGrant, the R&D and IP specialists, has today announced the launch of its Elevation platform, a new tool which will empower accountants to take control of R&D tax claims and support them through the process with access to additional expert help and resources as required. The platform helps accountants handle claims for clients spending up to £35,000 on their R&D more efficiently. This size claim accounts for just under one-third (30%) of all claims on the R&D scheme and equates to a total value of £70m, demonstrating the value accountants can add to their clients through use of the platform.

With an increasing number of ineffective R&D solutions being brought to market, it is becoming impossible for businesses and their accountants to know where to go for solid, reliable advice when it comes to R&D tax. Taking feedback directly from accountants, the Elevation platform provides them with greater clarity on the eligibility of businesses for tax incentives and gives them full control, visibility, and transparency over a client’s claim journey.  The focus of Elevation is on quality and providing the appropriate tools to match the types of client needs while helping accountants to upskill with the right knowledge and guidance on a secure, reliable platform for data transfer between third party R&D specialists and accountants.

It is a tech enablement solution that is using technology to help drive standards and underpin the integrity of the scheme and is being provided free of charge to accountants. Based on the accountant’s knowledge of the client, they will be able to build the claim report on behalf of clients in a plain English, powered by a benchmark of over 7,000 claims.

Luke Hamm, CEO of GovGrant, comments:

“We want to empower accountants to have the innovation conversation so they do not fall into the hands of unscrupulous ‘advisors’ throwing money at marketing, with zero experience, quality or concern for tax payers money. We are very proud of what we do and why we do it so Elevation allows us to open our doors and give accountants the tools, insight and total transparency needed to ensure their clients are in good hands and the government can continue to rely on R&D tax credits as a powerful tool to turbocharge the economy. 

“The R&D tax advisor market has sadly turned into the wild west and our hope is that Elevation puts a few more Sheriffs out there to protect clients and protect the scheme.”

•  € 100 million for online companies that have outgrown the start-up phase ∙ Loan volume between € 1 and € 7 million 
•  RBI one of the first corporate banks to offer targeted debt capital for digital  industries 

Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) has launched one of the largest European  financing programs for digital growth companies. With a total volume of € 100  million, online companies that have already outgrown the early start-up phase will  be supported.  

RBI as a pioneer 

RBI is one of the first commercial banks to offer so-called scale-ups uncomplicated  and fast corporate loans. Although demand for this product is high and growing  strongly, this customer segment has been virtually unserved in this respect. For the  founders and owners of fast-growing online companies, financing through debt  capital is very attractive compared to additional equity capital, for which they would  have to give up further company shares. "I have experienced this myself as a scale up founder," explains Joerg Bartussek, who now heads RBI's Digital Department and  developed the Digital Basket. "The more valuable the company shares you still hold  as a founder become, the more willing you are to pay interest for financing, and not  give away more shares." 

With its local knowledge and strengths, RBI serves this corporate segment  throughout Central and Eastern Europe, where it has been particularly difficult to  access traditional corporate loans even for top scale-ups. 

Fast and uncomplicated processing, no additional costs 

The Digital Basket loans do not incur any costs other than interest. The term is  between one and five years, depending on the customer's needs, and early  repayment is possible in principle. RBI is now starting to build up a portfolio of top  growth companies. The individual loan amounts range between € 1 and € 7 million. 

The first pilot financing under the Digital Basket has already been completed. Only  14 days passed from the start of credit check and contract negotiations to  disbursement. 

Qualification criteria  

To qualify for the Digital Basket, a scale-up must have annual revenues of at least  € 5 million, have gained the trust of renowned investors by raising at least € 3 million  in equity financing, and continue to grow profitably.  

Companies in Western Europe as well as in the entire geographic footprint of RBI in  Central and Eastern Europe are qualified. The Digital Basket does not focus on  specific industries; top SaaS companies, eCommerce platforms and apps are  financed just as much as innovative gaming providers, MedTechs or new mobility  players. The only exception are scale-ups in the financial sector, so-called FinTechs,  which are the target of RBI's Elevator Venture program. 

In addition to the track record of the founders or managers, other selection criteria  include a presence in at least two markets, an established internal controlling  system and an acceptable debt/equity ratio.  

Ignition, the global provider of advice technology, and Altus Consulting, specialist provider of consultancy services to the financial services sector, have today launched a blueprint for improving the use of digital capabilities in the financial advice market. This includes  recommendations on how the UK market can reduce the advice gap and ensure appropriate, affordable financial advice is available for all that want it. 

The paper was published in response to the global coronavirus pandemic and seeks to provide the industry with informed insights as to the best approach for advice firms to engage new and existing clients, drawing on the lessons learned from the wider economy over the past 15 months.

Whilst previous analysis in this space has sought to further the cause of either ‘robo’ or traditional, human advice, ‘Reimagining financial advice’ espouses a third way forwards: hybrid advice – a method of advice provision whereby technology enhances, rather than replaces, the work of a financial adviser. 

Terry Donohoe, CEO Europe, Ignition, said:

“The pandemic and the accompanying social distancing measures have forced us to rely on technology more than ever before. In some areas, this overnight change has provided a much-needed impetus to encourage businesses to re-think old habits and provide what is actually a better consumer experience.

“We have seen that there is real demand in the UK financial services market for true digital advice, which seamlessly combines technology and human expertise to provide an easy-to-use service that helps customers make better financial decisions. As our whitepaper shows, there are still significant hurdles to clear before this model becomes the norm, but we are now closer than ever to revolutionising the advice industry and closing the advice gap.” 

The white paper also includes a review of how M&G Wealth, the global wealth manager, has been working with Ignition to implement a hybrid advice platform for both new and existing clients.

Sam Turner, Consultant, Altus Consulting, said:

“Despite recent advances in technology, the current UK advice landscape is testament to the fact that pure digital advice remains a challenging proposition to deliver profitably. The initial hype around so-called ‘robo advice’ seems to have cooled and the industry is now turning towards a more hybrid model, which works in various forms to combine digital tools and human expertise.

“The recent rapid shift in working habits brought on by the pandemic has done a lot to accelerate change in the sector and alter attitudes towards the use of digital capabilities. The market may well be primed for a significant and lasting digital transformation, but implementing change on this scale is never a straightforward matter and our research has identified a number of key challenges that businesses will need to overcome over the next few years.”

Ignition launched in the UK in May 2021 and provides fully-compliant, digital advice journeys across investments, pensions, and insurance. The technology facilitates hybrid, adviser-led and direct to customer advice journeys, marking an evolution in the UK advice market.

Ignition clients include both global players in the financial sector as well as domestic and midmarket enterprises and was recently appointed by UK wealth manager M&G Wealth for delivery of its digital advice offering for its advisers and customers.

The full whitepaper can be downloaded for free, here.