Instant messaging for wealth managers and private banks

Now, more than ever, is the time to turn this on!

The world has changed overnight, and face-to-face conversations are now off the table. There is an urgency, especially in wealth management and private banking, to provide a personal alternative. Instant Messaging is a staple in our daily lives, but not all companies are equipped to deal with digitally enabled communications with their end clients in a secure and compliant way. The tech is mature and fast to deploy and with Covid-19 business disruption, this could be the prompt for you to adopt a solution you should already have.

In an industry where maintaining personal relationships with your clients is key to success, how will wealth managers continue to provide the best possible client service without meeting clients in person?

We believe that instant messaging can play a role in maintaining that personal connection.

Instant messaging apps are a staple in our lives. Since 2015 messaging has overtaken social media as the most common activity users engage in, on their mobile phones. WhatsApp, the world leading personal Instant Messaging application, is now being actively used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. Add Facebook Messenger and WeChat to this and the combined have a monthly active user base is more than 4 billion. The number continues to grow significantly when you consider other Instant Messaging applications with market leading positions including iMessage, QQ, Viber, LINE and Telegram. 

Yet, even now, most businesses remain on the side-lines, grappling with the challenge of how to engage their clients using Instant Messaging in a secure, compliant, efficient and effective way.

There are good reasons why businesses have been reluctant to jump in. Particularly in financial services, an industry built on trust, where protecting client information and staying safely within the boundaries of regulation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), is non-negotiable.

Firms also face a challenge of responding to increased cybersecurity risks, including phishing and eavesdropping attacks.  Phishing was named as the main cause of breaches between 2017 – 2019, representing 45% of all the reports to the ICO. Cyber-criminals are opportunistic and will look to exploit situations like Covid-19.

All this said, as it stands, most risk and compliance teams in financial services maintain the position and policy that employee use of Instant Messaging is not allowed. However, without an approved alternative the non-sanctioned use of Instant Messaging services by employees using their personal accounts, such as WhatsApp, continues to grow. This is a problem that needs to be addressed as this is a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and, in the case of WhatsApp’s, the Instant Messaging service Terms and Conditions.

Luckily there are solutions ready for wealth managers to adopt today. Instant Messaging technology has been maturing at pace and there are now excellent, secure and compliant solutions available at a competitive price point and can be deployed rapidly.

The key issue now seems to be the complication of navigating the choice amongst a long list of technology providers catering for various needs and requirements.

At Capita Consulting we have experts who have rolled out Instant Messaging solutions for large transactional contact centres and relationship businesses such as Private Banks. We have lived and breathed through the evolution of the C2C, B2C and B2B Instant Messaging technology. We know what works; we know what doesn’t. Importantly we just want to get on with delivering better outcomes.

Instant Messaging is the new normal in our personal life and with face-to-face meetings off the table in the immediate term, more than ever we would challenge you to ask yourself: If you can turn on a solution that your peers are already using within weeks to provide your clients a new and secure channel to engage you with remotely, why wouldn’t you?

At Capita, we have extensive experience and deep expertise in the rapid deployment of instant messaging solutions fit for purpose for different types of Financial Services institutions.

In response to the Covid-19 business disruption faced by all financial institutions, we have worked with our technology partners to develop offerings that support the rapid deployment and adoption of new Instant Messaging solutions for firms seeking to address the immediate face to face challenges and looking to launch such a service for their end clients and staff. 

For Wealth Managers and Private Banks specifically, we have teamed up with Qwil Messenger, a leading Instant Messaging solution built for Wealth Managers and Private Banks, to offer a fixed price Rapid Launch to get you live in weeks, to drive adoption and to enable you to generate immediate benefits for your clients and staff.