Amundi's COO sees huge potential for disruption in the way private banking is serviced. There are already tools that can tell you which client you should call based on the latest market movements, he says.
A Funds People article written by Regina R. Webb.
First came the digitisation of internal operations, then the foray into the SaaS world, software as a new service for the distribution business and third-party portfolio management. Now technology has the potential to transform the way we serve the wealth segment. This is the conviction of Guillaume Lesage, Chief Operating Officer of Amundi, Europe's largest fund manager.
"The big challenge for wealth business has always been the difficulty of scaling the service. The need to provide sufficiently personalised service somewhat limits the number of clients a private banker can serve," he explains. With technology, that could change. For example, for discretionary portfolio management, Amundi is already working with banks such as to implement tools to increase the number of portfolios an advisor can manage.
A personalised API
‘High net worth client service is the new frontier for technology to conquer,’ predicts Amundi's COO. According to Lesage, the new era of private banking will have tools capable of analysing a client's portfolio in depth. "The financial advisor will be able to analyse his client's investment profile in greater depth. Does he take risks? To what extent? An investor who remains calm during volatility peaks is not the same as one who also wants to buy when the market is bearish," he explains.
Three years ago, Amundi started working on expanding the capabilities of its ALTO service to the wealth segment and with the acquisition in November 2024 of German technology company aixigo, the French fund manager aims to leapfrog its offering. "The acquisition of aixigo not only opened up new markets for us, such as Germany or Switzerland, but also gave us access to their expertise in API (application programming interface) technology. APIs make it easier to integrate our technology platform with the customer's operations system, without having to redesign their entire existing structure," he explains.
One of aixigo's APIs is able to propose to the advisor which of his clients he should call during the week based on their portfolio, how the market has moved, and that person's historical investment behaviour. ‘That's really creating alpha for the client,’ Lesage insists.
The arrival of AI players in the sector
The integration of artificial intelligence remains one of Amundi's major investments in its technology business. For the time being, the practical application is being implemented internally. That said, Lesage does say that Amundi plans to offer AI engines to ALTO clients in the second half of 2025.
"All our employees have access to our ALTO Studio platform and half of them use it on a weekly basis. We already have 20 real applications to asset management: from compliance software, which allows a marketer to check that their proposal is compliant, to the latest development to come, AI-based agents," he says.
These agents act as a digital assistant that makes certain tasks more efficient. For example, when preparing a presentation for a client. The agent collects information from the analyst, retrieves what has already been sent to that client, searches for relevant data about their profile and coordinates with the commercial director the key contents of the meeting. Finally, it proposes the slides already assembled, ready for the user to review.
Technology, a CEO decision
One of the big challenges Lesage sees is that investment in technology has become a decision for the CEO of a financial institution. ‘It used to be a concern for the chief technology officer, but now the choice of technology platform is more critical because it will affect not only the internal business but also the end-customer experience,’ he explains. In his opinion, the complexity of the decision is one of the main barriers to adoption for the industry. And Amundi Technology can be reassuring, because is regulated with the exact same level of demand than its clients.
But it is a decision that he sees as inevitable. Banks must face the entry of new digital competitors, who have their own more advanced software with which they are capturing many customers. This is something that the banking sector has realised and some are making moves. "However, the problem is that many banks don't know how to make the leap while maintaining a personal, human approach with their customers. They don't want to become a purely digital player but to combine the best of both worlds. This is where we are now in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc.," he says.
Amundi Technology: a 100 million revenue business
The last time we sat down with Lesage, also as part of the Amundi World Investment Forum, the Amundi Technology unit was generating €60m in revenues for the French fund manager. Twelve months later, with the integration of aixigo that figure has risen to 100 million euros. The fund manager now serves 80 clients and has entered new countries such as the United Kingdom, China and India.
