Advisor | December 2024
The revolution underway in the banking world, between local and international risiko, has one primary objective, that of gaining market share in the management of savings of Italians and more generally of European citizens.
This explains why the large international banks want to strengthen themselves in the sector of protection and managed savings by aiming to acquire the so-called product factories.
Mergers and acquisitions almost always involve destabilizing phenomena for the banking system and especially for those who work in it.
It is foreseeable that many bank employees fear that mergers and acquisitions will put their jobs at risk. Almost certainly in the short-medium term, the networks of financial advisors will benefit from this in terms of recruitment.
However, this is only in the short-medium term, because if we look from here to the next ten years, the challenge of banks versus networks, assuming that we can call it a challenge, given their complementarity and co-ownership, will be played out on another field.
The extension of life beyond the average, better known as the phenomenon of longevity, has created a phenomenon never seen before: at the table of financial consultancy and private banking, today four generations sit.
To simplify, let’s imagine that an eighty-year-old, a sixty-year-old, a forty-year-old and a twenty-year-old, from the same family and at the same time, interface with their bank.
The eighty-year-old and the sixty-year-old, if adequately capitalized, belonging to the upper affluent or private segment, will almost certainly have a physical contact, i.e. a dedicated professional.
Even the forty-year-old affluent or private, will be able to count on a manager for decisions regarding the management of their assets but almost certainly interfaces with their bank and therefore approaches the topic of investments also through a digital platform.
For the twenty-year-old, the bank is an App on the smartphone and the manager is a professional who answers the phone or chats.
All this explains why as a rule when the twenty-year-old or forty-year-old inherits a small or large fortune from those who preceded them, in more than one case out of two they abandon the bank of their ancestors.
It is highly probable that we will witness a polarization between the world of consultancy as we know it today and the world of digital platforms.
Consulting as we know it today will be for clients with higher net worth and with an average higher age, the world of platforms, perhaps with a manager who responds remotely, will be the prerogative of clients with average net worths that are smaller but still significant (two/three hundred thousand Euros) and younger.
The challenge for the major international banks as well as the financial networks operating in Italy is to be able to play on both fronts, with service models that can serve current customers but also their progeny.
To do this, significant investments are needed and courageous captains at the helm of the banks and networks who know how to look at the quarterly report but also at the more distant future.
Almost certainly, the banking groups that are protagonists of the game of risk will be able to play a decisive role on both fronts, provided they are also able to invest in their people.
If this does not happen, a season of successes never seen before will open up for the networks of financial advisors.
Nicola Ronchetti