Wealth management products make big leaps in digital sales readiness

Australians can now apply for 60% of all wealth management products offered by the country's biggest banks from their mobile phones, according to a fintech which helps financial services companies acquire clients.

Avoka measured digital sales readiness for the 50 largest banks across Australia, North America and Europe for products across three segments: personal banking, business banking and wealth management. Eleven of the 50 banks were Australian.

Australia "leads them all" in digital readiness, the fintech said.

"Banks have accepted that online account opening is a must have, not a 'nice to have'. The focus now is on whether the largest banks can transform their entire customer engagement across all product lines including personal, business, and wealth, or is it limited to a marquee demonstration for just a few consumer products," Avoka chief executive Phil Copeland said.

Avoka commissioned a research team to trawl through each banking product listed on the websites of the 50 banks. They mainly looked for two things: could the product be applied for from desktop and mobile devices; did the application have the basic features necessary to ensure success.

It compared the results for three years, with the 2017 sample set consisting of 32 banks instead of 50.

Personal banking led the pack worldwide, with 69% digital readiness, more than double of where it was two years ago. In Australia, nearly every flagship product ranks high in quality of experience, Copeland said.

In the wealth management segment, global digital sales capabilities stood at 47%. By contrast, 60% of Australian wealth products could be applied to from a mobile device.

"The progress in personal products are starting to spill over into wealth management," the report commented.

Business banking remained the least digital sales ready segment. Only 30% of the total products analysed across the globe had digital sales capabilities.

"Australia still leads, but the other regions are catching up. Business banking offers the best unexploited opportunity for digital leadership and improvement of customer experience," the report commented.