One driver will be clients themselves, and we see this happening already. Clients are citizens of a digital world. They expect better customer service from their asset servicers, and require more digital engagement than they’ve previously been offered. According to a 2020 Deloitte survey, 50% of asset manager respondents expect to introduce cryptocurrencies to their funds over the next three years.3 However, the majority of those asset managers feel that their service providers are not meeting their expectations in terms of their digital expertise. As a result, more and more asset managers are using technology to insource certain activities.3To address their concerns, custodians will be required to offer new, innovative digital solutions.
These solutions will require, among other things, better structured data, and better access to data for clients. They will also require actionable insights that help clients make better investment decisions. By 2030, it won’t be enough for asset servicers to safeguard assets and provide ancillary services with strong technology at the core. Instead, global custodians will be using AI and sophisticated algorithms to help their clients in a myriad of ways. They will be expected to provide individualised experiences at any time, anywhere, and in any way.
While the last decade brought the prevalence of Big Data, we believe the decade to come will see a change in Service on Data. By 2030, some data, for example, will be freely available and useable as a service. People will have moved beyond data lakes – the centralised repositories that store structured and unstructured data at any scale. Instead, data integration will enable live access to data at any time, and in a way that allows for integration with core internal processes. Those real-time data feeds will have significant implications for what experiences custodians can provide their clients, and at what costs.