European Bank: BlackRock digital transformation

Call for change

Wealth and asset management is an increasingly competitive space worldwide. Companies that can keep their costs in check, and provide their wealth managers with accurate information, are more likely to do well.

A banking group in Europe wanted to reduce its total cost of ownership. At the same time, it wanted to provide better service to its customers and relationship managers and expand its market share. Achieving this would be easier if it adopted BlackRock’s Aladdin Enterprise, Aladdin Wealth and eFront solutions. But it recognized that getting from its current state to this future state would be a complex undertaking.

The group sought Accenture’s help to:

• Define a comprehensive risk model at the group level.
• Help relationship managers better manage their customers’ portfolios.
• Provide customers with portfolio rebalancing and investment recommendations through a Robo Advisor.
• Streamline its wealth and asset management processes and enhance its ability to launch new services.
• Maximize its return on investment (ROI).

When tech meets human ingenuity

Accenture is partnering with the banking group on a transformation. It includes central governance and business activities, risk management analysis and system integration. We are bringing a mix of strategy, consulting and technical resources from our Wealth Management, Finance & Risk, Talent & Organization, Tech Advisory and Cybersecurity practices.

With extensive experience collaborating with BlackRock on Aladdin solutions, our team began with a feasibility study of governance IT estimates. We helped create a target operating model and a company-wide risk model. Also, a plan for consolidating the group’s wealth and asset management activities on the new Aladdin platforms.

To automate the group’s advisory services and extend them to previously unserved or underserved customers, our team is developing a Robo Advisor. We will also be supporting the movement of assets—from assets under administration (AUA) to assets under management (AUM)—as well as providing project management for the length of the project.

A valuable difference

Still in the design phase, the first results are already in. With Accenture’s help, the banking group has a confirmed plan for rationalizing its wealth and asset management platforms—including target architecture, supporting applications and simplified processes. The new highly scalable solution is expected to result in savings of around €2 million per year.

The group is looking forward to improved consistency in its risk management and more streamlined reporting based on having a unified risk model across the entire organization and for all asset classes.

Furthermore, after implementing the Robo Advisors, the group anticipates it will be able to increase its advisory proposals for customers to 1,700 million in five years. In addition to a lower total cost of ownership, the group expects to acquire new customers and boost profits significantly. And the group’s customers will enjoy more efficient processes and a superior experience.