By Daniel Bower, FinClear
The future of investment is not about one provider doing everything. It is about connecting the best capabilities in the world around the needs of the client.
For years, the investment industry has focused on improving almost every part of the client experience.
Trading is faster. Portfolio information is increasingly available in real time. Australian investors can access global markets more easily than ever. Advisers and brokers are becoming more digital, more connected and more ambitious in the experiences they want to provide.
Yet the infrastructure supporting cash, the critical payment leg of each and every trade has often remained fragmented.
Money moves between external bank accounts, trading accounts, platforms and investment providers. Foreign currency is handled through a separate process. Payments sit somewhere else again. Each additional hand-off creates delay, complexity and another point of operational friction.
That is now changing.
Across wealth management and stockbroking, cash is becoming more closely connected with the investment experience.
This is important progress.
But bringing cash closer to the platform is not the end point.
The bigger opportunity is to create an infrastructure model that brings together the strongest capabilities available across banking, payments, foreign exchange, technology and investing, while allowing the broker, platform or AFSL to remain in control of its client relationship and future strategy.
No single provider needs to do everything
Different institutions bring different strengths.
A global financial institution may provide sophisticated payments infrastructure, international reach and multi-currency capability. An Australian bank may provide strong domestic liquidity and deposit capability. A specialist provider may bring deep foreign exchange expertise. A technology platform may provide the client interface, adviser experience or workflow.
The opportunity is not to ask one organisation to be the best at everything. It is to connect these capabilities into one coherent experience.
For the adviser and client, that complexity should largely disappear.
The adviser should not have to move between disconnected systems. The client should not need to understand which provider is performing each underlying function. The broker or AFSL should not have to rebuild its client experience every time a new capability is introduced.
The best platform should allow specialist providers to do what they do best, while the client experiences one connected service.
Architecture shapes strategic freedom
As cash becomes more deeply embedded into the investment experience, firms should ask a broader set of questions.
Who controls the client relationship? Who controls the user experience? Who determines the product roadmap? Can new currencies, payment capabilities and financial partners be added over time? Can the underlying infrastructure evolve without forcing clients through another major migration?
These are not simply technology questions. They are strategic questions.
Client expectations change. Markets change. Investment opportunities change. Technology changes.
The firms that retain control of their architecture are better placed to respond.
A closed product may solve a specific problem very well. But a connected infrastructure model creates the ability to evolve as new capabilities become available.
Bringing the best capabilities together
At FinClear, this is our philosophy.
The objective is not to replace banks, liquidity providers or specialist technology platforms. It is to connect their strongest capabilities.
FinClear brings together cash, multiple currencies, foreign exchange and payments, and connects them with the investment and settlement experience.
The broker, platform or AFSL remains at the centre of the client relationship. The adviser remains empowered to serve the client.
Behind that experience, FinClear can work with leading Australian and global institutions to connect the capabilities required to support increasingly sophisticated investment needs.
That creates a different form of flexibility.
A firm can strengthen its proposition by working with world-class specialist providers without requiring the entire client experience to be built around one product.
New capabilities can be introduced. Banking relationships can evolve. Technology can improve. The infrastructure underneath the experience can change without requiring the firm to surrender control of its client relationship or strategic direction.
Why this matters for advisers
For advisers, the outcome should be simple.
Greater visibility over cash. Less unnecessary movement of money. Fewer disconnected workflows. Better access to domestic and global investment opportunities.
And an experience designed around the needs of the adviser and client, rather than the limitations of the underlying infrastructure.
The complexity should sit behind the scenes. The adviser should see one connected experience.
What comes next
The investment industry is right to focus on integrated cash.
Bringing cash closer to the investment portfolio can reduce friction and improve the client experience.
But the next stage is larger.
The future will be shaped by firms that can connect the best products, technologies and financial institutions in the world around the needs of the client, while preserving control of the relationship and the ability to determine what comes next.
Not one provider doing everything. The right providers doing what they do best. Connected through platforms designed to evolve.
See how FinClear and J.P. Morgan are working together to connect world-class banking capability with the next generation of cash, FX and payments infrastructure for investing.
Learn more here: https://hello.finclear.com.au/service/cash-payments
