WEALTH MANAGEMENT

The holistic view

BME spoke to Shefali Khera, Business Head, Agile Financial Technologies at TFS, USA about the companys winning service offerings
Shefali Khera, Business Head, Agile Financial Technologies at TFS

BANCASSURANCE

Why is bancassurance picking up steam?

Bancassurance is a win-win strategy for customers, banks and insurance companies. Banks benefit from increased fee incomes by selling insurance products, insurance companies leverage the wide reach of banks branch networks and customers get composite financial management by obtaining a sensible allocation towards insurance vis--vis other asset classes being managed by a single advisory team. Some banks in the region are more progressive in their outlook and look at bancassurance as a vital piece in the wealth management strategy for their customers, rather than just a fee earner for the bank.

automates the entire workflow of bancassurance from Origination (product advisory to customers), Policy Issuance, Servicing (renewals, top ups, claims management), to back office. What is challenging in this practice is that it involves multiple and distinct financial institutions (eg. a bank with multiple insurance carriers or an insurance company with multiple banks) that need to collaborate, exchange data and reconcile to present a single window of service to the customer and Agilis Bancassurance seamlessly weaves the complex engagements into a unified platform.

You mentioned bancassurance as part of Wealth Management, how do they fit together?
Lets talk about an even larger context of investment management. With Agilis, we like to take a holistic view of the superset of Investment Management and hence the creation of Agilis Investment Management Suite (IMS) that has since won many awards and accolades including the Best Asset Management Software in the Middle East. The universe of Investment Management has interlinked domains of capital markets, financial planning, wealth, funds and annuities. There are myriad asset classes and structured products that both overlap and underlie whilst criss-crossing evolving counter parties. Agilis IMS effortlessly caters to all these aspects and nuances of the ecosystem. Traditionally financial institutions have been forced to deploy a plethora of disparate software solutions and interface with third party components to get at best a disconcerting view. Agilis IMS provides an integrated view of various moving parts, a harmonised visual field and intuitive analytics enabling investment managers to proactively simulate expected results before taking any investment decision. Often institutions using our systems have found the whole is literally greater than the sum of its parts.

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Are there any banks in the region that are positioning bancassurance as part of Wealth Management?
Yes, we have been seeing a consistent upward trend in the Middle East & APAC. In the region, Emirates NBD Bank, an Agilis Bancassurance software customer, has been a pioneer in both offering bancassurance as an intrinsic part of their Wealth Management Services as well as investing into technology to bolster the practice.

On the Wealth Management side, do you find any difference in the approach in various geographies?
The objective of investment management remains the same universally however the approach can differ due to both cultural as well as regulatory directives. Agilis Wealth Management with its configuration and parameterisation engines can cater to any environment and this specially benefits those institutions that are present in multiple regions. The modular structure of the solution enables customers to select the modules they need. In the Middle East for instance, we find a higher demand for Agilis Family Office, Agilis Real Estate and Agilis Shariah-compliant Portfolio Management.

Talking of Agilis bancassurance software, how does it help banks and insurance companies?
Agilis Bancassurance solution is a very niche software product that completely

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