Beyond the trade with Securities Services
Asset managers are going through unprecedented change. Relationships with servicing partners are evolving. We go behind the scenes to speak to asset servicing experts and find out what’s really important for asset managers, what’s changing, and who’s involved in transforming their business, together.
Episode 1 – Onboarding: first impressions, lasting impressions
Annie Blouin : Hello, I’m Annie Blouin. I’m the Global Head of Relationship Manager and Client Services at BNP Paribas’ Securities Services business. And I’d like to introduce you to our new podcast series Beyond the Trade.
In this series, we’ll be going behind the scenes to speak to our asset servicing experts and find out what’s really important to our asset managers. So, joining me today is Gilliane Philip Courtines. She’s the COO and Global Head of Business Implementation. Welcome, Gilliane. Thank you so much for joining us. We’ve worked for many years now together, but maybe for the audience, could you explain a little about your role and really what it means?
Gilliane Philip Courtines : Thank you, Annie. Thank you for inviting me to join your new series. I’m Global Head of Business Implementation within Client Delivery, so that’s operations of securities services and I’ve got a number of years’ experience within asset servicing. Having worked with you, Annie, actually and 20 plus years on the client side in client relationship management, so it’s something that is near and dear to my heart and as you can tell from my accent, I’ve been based in Paris for a number of years and originally from New York City actually, so I’m very happy to be here with you today.
Annie Blouin : Thank you. Thank you, Gilliane. So, today, Gilliane and I will be focusing on the topic of onboarding. It’s something that’s very important to all asset managers. It can be, as you know, Gilliane, very complex, but also something that if it’s done smoothly can make a big difference to an asset manager’s business. So, let me start with the first question, Gilliane, why is onboarding so important?
Gilliane Philip Courtines : So first of all, what is onboarding? Onboarding is the implementation of a client’s business. It is transformation of client’s business, and it is integrating the client’s business completely into a partnership role within securities services. So, it’s extremely important.
You all have heard the expression, I’m sure many times, ‘first impressions, lasting impressions’. It’s important within securities services that we give the client from the start, from day one, a positive client experience because the partnership is going to last for a number of years and we want them to continue to do business with us.
So first and foremost, we need to make it seamless. We need to make it as smooth as possible and we need to be agile in a very complex world, because financial services is complex, particularly when you’re working internationally. So, really, that is the first piece.
The second piece that we should always remember is that here when we onboard a client, we are also assisting the client in onboarding their own clients, and time to market is absolutely of essence. The quicker that we bring on board the new business, the quicker the client can trade and the quicker they can allow their own clients to trade. And we have to remember that value chain which is important. So, when we onboard in a quality manner, it is the best thing that we can do to allow our own clients to develop their business in a complex world.
Annie Blouin : Yeah, absolutely, Gilliane. But, over the years, what would you say has changed for the asset managers?
Gilliane Philip Courtines : So, at first I think what we’ve seen is that for asset managers it’s the time to market. The world is going faster and is more sophisticated and more complex, because what we’ve seen is that asset managers are going into more international markets and they’re going into more new asset classes – we’ve seen private capital, we’ve seen hedge fund strategies that are diversifying.
So, our clients themselves are becoming more sophisticated. They have more frequent new product launches. We’ve got OTC trades, we’ve got new markets as well or new product launches. And so, we need to be able to be agile to accompany them, and to have more product knowledge than we used to, and that is extremely important. In addition to which, asset servicing and financial markets themselves are increasing their complexity and their speed. All of you have seen T+1 in the US and that’s been a big challenge. And now we’ve got T+1 coming to European markets as well. And that’s something that we’re all going to have to adjust and adapt both in terms of operational processes and also technology. So, these are two extremely important functions for our asset managers going forward and it means that our people have to be agile and also have to increase their level of knowledge of each of these financial markets.
Annie Blouin : Very interesting, Gilliane, very clear as well. So, in the next part, we’ll be talking about how BNP Paribas can actually support our clients with all of this.
[Break]
Annie Blouin : So, Gilliane, before the break, we were talking about how the environment is changing for asset managers and the importance of onboarding. So, how are we set up to support clients with this and what makes the difference?
Gilliane Philip Courtines : Thanks for that question, Annie. First and foremost, it’s people. So, it’s the quality of our people, and the quality of the organisation that we organise ourselves facing off to clients. So, really there are two key roles in the onboarding process. First and foremost, it’s the end-to-end coordinators who are project managers and who coordinate the project facing off to the client. So the client has a single person, a one-stop-shop, who will coordinate internally – within securities services – all of the experts. Since onboarding is something which touches upon the entire organisation, you know, IT, operations, legal, etc.
We then have different experts in the different areas which are the product onboarding experts, who will manage the process of the onboarding for fund accounting, for TA, for the legal structure, for the KYC, paperwork, etc. And that is, first and foremost, important because it makes a difference in the sense that we have the expertise in each of the markets and we are going to manage that as seamlessly as possible.
And if I can give a couple of examples, many of you have seen in the press that we’ve onboarded recently, one of the leading independent asset managers in Europe and we also worked on a very, very large strategic project in Australia, across APAC, in different regions and there we’ve put in place a project management onboarding expertise to be able to manage each of the individual markets directly. And those are projects which have lasted several months and we do the very same when a client, an existing client, brings on board a new asset class or a new fund. There as well, he will face off to an end-to-end coordinator in each of the markets, so it could be France or Luxembourg, and that’s really something that has been very successful in allowing our clients to onboard their businesses, as I said earlier, with time to market.
Annie Blouin : OK, so clearly, Gilliane, the people are vital, but what about technology? We live in an increasingly technology-dominated world. How is this influencing the onboarding process?
Gilliane Philip Courtines : So, technology is increasingly important. First, for speed and secondly for transparency. Since the client’s, you know, time to market is of essence, we need to be able to let them know through every piece and cycle of the process, where we stand.
So, we have a portal, we have the NeoLink portal, which allows them to get real-time information on the status of their portfolios. Because the business continues to go on for our asset manager clients, despite the fact that they’re onboarding. So even if they’re shifting providers, even if they’re merging their businesses or merging their activities, they need to be able to get that real-time reporting and we need to give them, every step of the way, access to digital tools that allow them, also throughout the process, to be able to onboard.
So, if I can give an example we have within our portal, the digital account opening forms which allows them to digitalise the process, to go faster and so that we can extract those data points and upload them directly into our own platforms, so that it’s in a seamless manner and that there’s no operational risk.
The other piece that we’ve seen: you’ve seen in the press also that we’ve got asset managers that are merging or that are doing themselves M&A activity. By giving them both the people that have the knowledge and the expertise, and the technology that goes with it, this allows them to have an onboarding machine, if I can use that terminology, through their partnership with securities services so we become ourselves, their back-office within securities services.
Annie Blouin : So, it’s really all about the efficient combination of people and technology then.
Gilliane Philip Courtines : Absolutely.
Annie Blouin : We know, of course, that onboarding is only the beginning. Does a good onboarding, in your view, lead to a good partnership in the long term?
Gilliane Philip Courtines : Absolutely, absolutely. And for a number of reasons.
I spoke earlier about, and I like the terminology of, integration machine, onboarding is one of the pieces for our clients of their own implementation of business. So, throughout the cycle of their own growth, because I think that we partner with clients who do grow, and so they grow across new asset classes, they grow across new markets.
There’s mergers also, M&A activity, and you’ve seen in the press that two of our large clients, they themselves that are making acquisitions and that are merging, and we are the key enabler that allows them to manage, you know, the front end with their own clients, and we make it as seamless as possible on the back end. And really that’s where the partnership does continue through time, as they transform their business, and I’ve given some examples of some of our clients that we’ve accompanied. And what’s important is that we within securities services do go the extra mile and I’ve got a couple of anecdotes where we had to run across town to be able to sign a legal agreement because it had to be done at the lawyer’s office and we sent someone in the middle of the day to be able to do so, so that our clients could make that acquisition firm.
These are examples of what we do in terms of going the extra mile because our onboarding community as a whole not only puts its feet in the shoes of the clients, but they really become one with the client’s organisation and business. And as I said, allowing our clients to do the front end, and securities services acts as the back end.
Annie Blouin : Gilliane, thank you so much for that. It’s really been interesting to hear your experience and I’m really looking forward to hearing more about these partnerships in the future.
Gilliane Philip Courtines : Thank you, Annie.
Annie Blouin : This has been a Beyond the Trade podcast, and do stay tuned for more episodes soon. Thank you.
