Investment through digital channels has been key to the growth of Asia’s asset management industry. But how will asset managers position themselves in Asia to capture new investment flows?
By forcing asset managers to change their working practices and embrace technological innovations, the covid-19 crisis has hastened the industry’s digital transformation.
In China, digital channels have been central to the growth of the investment funds industry. The survey reveals that this digital expansion is likely to be replicated globally, with digital channels expected to be key in driving asset-gathering in fund markets around the world.
When we asked our Asia-based respondents which technologies will have the biggest impact on the funds business, they told us (as they did in the 2019 Asia survey) that distributed ledger technology (DLT) will be most important.
In recent months, new technologies have played an important part in supporting the asset management industry’s move to remote working and to supporting high standards of operational resilience. We asked respondents how this period will affect their attitude to technology adoption (fig 10).
In this section, we assess how the distribution channels that asset managers are using to sell their fund products in Asian markets are changing. We asked respondents to evaluate distribution channels in order of importance from 6 (most important) to 1 (least important).
Margin compression continues to place pressure across the asset management industry, with fund manufacturers, distributors, asset servicing specialists and infrastructure entities all forced to review their business models in the face of margin contraction.
This survey reveals that Asia-based investors will be seeking investment opportunities particularly within the Asia-Pacific region during the coming 12 months. China will be the most popular investment destination, with Hong Kong and Singapore also prominent.
