It’s not that simple. Wealth management clients today receive a great deal more with similar conditions and higher regulatory demands.

In a fiercely competitive and saturated market, companies are forced to optimize the added value for customers to gain market share. The transformation to a more customer-centric business model is a highly complex process for many providers and may not be achievable for some of the companies.

Why?

The more complex an organization, the more difficult it is to achieve a sustainable change of business model: culture is stronger than strategy.
This doesn’t mean that there shouldn’t be product centric segments. It makes sense in investment banking – to the advantage of clients.

«The value proposition is decisive»

How should wealth managers differentiate themselves from each other?

What is decisive is their value proposition. It determines where they stops doing things themselves. There will be banks that increasingly see themselves as tech companies, others will focus exclusively on the client business.

You said that banks should take their cue from the car industry.

We always have to be very careful with comparisons between industries. But for sure, car manufacturers have specialized and produce only what is important for their value proposition – no carmaker produces tires for instance.

And what is the situation in banking?