Our signature monthly gathering, CFTE’s Coffee and Croissants, made a return on 29th August, 2024, and what a fantastic event it was!
Held in the heart of Singapore’s bustling financial district at Battery Road, this edition of Coffee and Croissants brought together a vibrant community of finance professionals, tech and finance enthusiasts, and industry leaders. It was a morning filled with hot coffee, delicious croissants, and, most importantly, enriching conversations.
Our Guest Speaker: Jitendra Tekchandani
This month, we had the pleasure of hosting Jitendra Tekchandani, Executive Director of Wealth Management at DBS Bank, as our esteemed guest speaker. Jitendra’s session was nothing short of inspirational, as he shared his remarkable journey across various global financial hubs. His insights into transforming the Wealth Business through the strategic use of technology as an enabler and using customer and employee experiences as the main drivers was the focus of the engaging discussions that ensued.
Jitendra discussed his journey from technical project manager to product management to wealth management at DBS Bank, emphasising the importance of end-to-end customer journeys and employee experiences. He highlighted the gap in wealth management, with only a small fraction of Asian assets invested in stocks compared to almost half in the US. A key point was the guiding principle that technology should enable solutions rather than drive them, focusing on simplifying processes and addressing inefficiencies present in existing processes to unlock significant productivity and efficiency gains.
Key Takeaways from the Session
● The Importance of the Employee Experience:
Employee experiences are crucial for delivering good customer experiences, especially in wealth management. Leveraging technology effectively is the use-case with most potential to augment productivity and customer engagement across the value chain from Relationship Managers, and culminating in increased customer satisfaction.
● Change Management in Tech Adoption for Wealth Management:
The discussion highlighted the reality of technology adoption and the need for intentional efforts in change management. Designing and setting up processes keeping in mind the problems, stakeholders and iterations based on feedback is key. For example, in wealth management, involving RMs in the development process and providing interactive training to ensure smooth adoption is effective.
● Challenges and Opportunities in Wealth Management:
The growing importance of wealth management in Asia was noted, with a significant revenue potential.This in tandem with the observation of an underserved affluent segment, presented a key opportunity in the wealth management space in Asia. The discussion also compared the wealth management markets in Asia and the US, noting significant gaps and opportunities.
What's next for Coffee and Croissants?
Join us in Singapore for our next monthly iterations of Coffee and Croissants to converse about the latest developments in technology and finance with like-minded individuals and industry experts, network, and join the community!
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