From Legacy to Lagging: Why Asset Managers Are Behind the Digital Curve
Despite being a multi-trillion-dollar industry at the heart of global capital markets, asset management continues to lag in digital transformation. While sectors such as e-commerce and consumer fintech have embraced cloud-native technologies and AI-driven personalization at scale, many asset managers remain tied to outdated infrastructure, legacy software, and manual workflows. This inertia is most pronounced among large firms, where operational complexity makes modernization harder to execute. In this whitepaper, Tim Wanders (Motive Partners) and Peter Salvage (Amundi Technology) explore how structural shifts in global capital markets are opening entirely new asset pools, why the transformation imperative extends beyond efficiency, and what it will take for asset managers to capture the next wave of growth.
About Amundi
Amundi, the leading European asset manager, ranking among the top 10 global players, offers its 100 million clients - retail, institutional and corporate - a complete range of savings and investment solutions in active and passive management, in traditional or real assets. This offering is enhanced with IT tools and services to cover the entire savings value chain. A subsidiary of the Crédit Agricole group and listed on the stock exchange, Amundi currently manages more than €2.3 trillion of assets.
With its six international investment hubs, financial and extra-financial research capabilities and long-standing commitment to responsible investment, Amundi is a key player in the asset management landscape.
Amundi clients benefit from the expertise and advice of 5,600 employees in 35 countries. Amundi, a trusted partner, working every day in the interest of its clients and society.
About Amundi Technology
Amundi Technology is a leading provider of technology and services to the financial services industry and part of Amundi Group. Through the ALTO suite, Amundi Technology offers a comprehensive range of solutions, including portfolio management systems, discretionary portfolio management and advisory platforms, savings software, and specialized solutions. They have over 1,300 professionals globally with teams in 19 countries.
The technology platforms provide adaptive solutions that allow clients to focus on their core business, and include ALTO Investment, ALTO Wealth & Distribution, ALTO Sustainability, ALTO Asset Servicing and ALTO ESR.
About Motive Partners
Motive Partners is a private investment firm exclusively focused on financial technology and technology-enabled business services companies, ranging from early-stage ventures to growth equity and buyout, primarily based in North America and Europe. The firm invests across five primary subsectors: Banking & Payments; Capital Markets; AI, Data & Analytics; Insurance; and Wealth and Asset Management; and Motive Partners portfolio companies benefit from the firm’s fully integrated, proven Investor, Operator, Innovator (IOI) model, which brings together world-class fintech leaders and capabilities with deep industry knowledge, insight and experience. With offices in New York City, London, and Berlin, Motive Partners delivers differentiated expertise, connectivity, and capabilities to create long-term value in financial technology companies. More information on Motive Partners can be found at www.motivepartners.com
