Mobile apps are becoming a key channel between private banks and their clients, and organisations need to use them express their client centricity and capabilities to build trust with high net worth individuals (HNWIs), according to an expert panel.

Speaking at the Wealth Transformation Summit, Moneycorp global head of private clients, Richard Thomas, said that the emergence of apps over websites was clear, and trust was being measured through this channel.

“You’re seeing the channel being the most accessible expression of how client-centric you are as an organisation,” Thomas stated.

“You need to express your client centricity and your capabilities through your mobile app as a way of building trust – that becomes a real trust channel, especially for HNWIs.

“We used to compare our apps against other finance apps and other banking apps, but we are really being compared against consumer tech.”

He added that private banks and wealth firms do not have to test themselves to develop the next ‘world-dominating’ technology, but must make sure their digital presence is a representation of how they feel about the client.

Also speaking on the panel, Investec Bank head of UK transactional banking, Michael Goemans, said: “You have to be solving a problem that the client has. We’re in banking, it’s not like we are trying to take them to the moon.

“We are trying to help clients make payments, invest their money, buy something, and can you make that, simpler, better, faster for your clients? That’s what you want to do.

“A lot of what we try and do is make things easier for our clients. They are time-poor, their time is very expensive, and if you can make life easier for them, either through touch or automation/digitisation, then that’s valuable.”

Thomas highlighted the benefits of going through a digital transformation to an organisation, but cited concerns about those looking externally to deliver that transformation.

“I think there is a big argument for getting your people involved,” he said. “In pulling apart your organisation and putting it back together again, and in teaching that new proposition to your people, the understanding of the organisation goes to a new level.

“With the understanding comes greater colleague engagement. The more they do this kind of activity, the more they are engaged, they feel their ownership of the company.

“You tend to get a better risk-aware culture in the organisation because of that ownership of the organisation. It’s that journey of improving the organisation, of creating something new in the organisation, of doing it as a shared endeavour, that I think does wonders for colleague engagement, sense of ownership, and the risk culture.”

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