Across the globe, the world’s technology giants are increasingly turning their attention to financial services. Given the considerable resources the tech giants can deploy, what does their encroachment signify for the financial services sector? Ross Milward, our Chief Technology Officer has coined this articles and shared his insights on how big technology companies are benefitting from the digital transformation across all over the world.

Where Big Tech Meets Big Finance

It's International Women's Day! We brought together our inspiring #femaleinfintech in the office to celebrate the event.

Celebrating International Women's Day

With the strength, confidence and reliability that characterizes the Ox, we are forging ahead with some digital wealth propositions in this Lunar New Year. We are excited to share with you some of this work.

An Ox-traordinary 2021

The emergence of an Internet of Finance has started to bring changes to the financial sector. Much of the change we see in the financial sector comes in response to customer expectations. Check out how Ross Milward, our Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder, thinks of this innovation in the traditionally conservative finance sector. 

Shaping The Internet of Finance

Wealthcare, the financial wellness of an individual, has emerged as a top life planning priority for the majority of Hongkongers. Quantifeed’s newly published report, The “State of Wealthcare – Disconnects Between Hongkongers’ Desire and Action”, reveals that Hongkongers are taking wealth management more seriously than ever before, and are looking for emerging technologies to fulfill their needs.

State of Wealthcare Report

Let’s face it: most people find wealth management mysterious, tedious and something best done some other day. So a key factor in making a robo platform successful is getting the customer experience right.

Seven Lessons After Seven Years of Building Robos in Asia

John Robson, our Chief Commercial Officer, was featured in What the Fintech, a creative fintech content platform. Tune in and listen to John's insights on digital wealth management trends in Asia and how we are empowering our clients.

 Feature Interview with What the Fintech

Graeme Brant, our Senior Executive, Strategic Partnerships, talks about the trend of digital wealth management with Shed Connect. Graeme argues that it is a question of when, not if, robo-advice will be widely accepted by mainstream investors

Feature Podcast on Shed Connect

There is probably no better time to talk about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing than now. The coronavirus pandemic has completely changed people’s daily lives and disrupted the financial market. Yet amid the stock market turmoil, shares of companies focused on climate change or ESG issues outperformed as the virus spreads. According to a report by HSBC Research , the climate-focused stocks in Asia-Pacific outperformed that region’s index by 13.6 per cent since 10 December and 5.6 per cent since 24 February.

Of Green Swans And Outperformance With A Purpose

To mark International Women’s Day, we spoke with Audrey Wong, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of digital wealth management solutions provider Quantifeed, about workplace diversity and the status of women in the fintech industry.

Celebrating Diversity: Welcoming Women into the Fintech Workplace

Battle royale game Fortnite has become a phenomenon. The video game played by roughly 250 million players worldwide has generated billions of dollars and an obsession for gamers of all ages. But the real headline at the end of July 2019, was Bugha, a 16-year old American boy who took home the grand prize of US$3 million during Fortnite’s World Cup finals at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York.

How to retire at the age 16

Banks in Asia, and around the globe, face a challenge. More and more customers from their large and growing retail customer base are digitally active, and they want personalized investment solutions available anytime and anywhere.

Think Big, Start Small, Learn Fast

How many times have you heard this from your development teams? Modern systems are increasingly complex and often suffer from the butterfly effect of small changes. All too often the approach to testing is still highly manual and hasn’t kept pace with that complexity.

That shouldn’t have happened

Thematic investing has been steadily gaining in popularity over the past years, helped by ETFs that provide readily available exposure to niche sectors from Cyber-Security to Medical Devices. Thanks to these ready-made portfolios, investors get to access a theme without the burden of stock selection.

Smarter than FANG

Conventional financial advice often draws a distinction between growth and income portfolios. This article argues that a portfolio of growth stocks can be a good strategy to generate income, especially in times of rising interest rates.

Rising Interest Rates : Creating Growth-powered Income

We are about to witness the creation of two pieces of regulation that provide a catalyst for much improved banking services for consumers. In the short term, its impact will arguably be larger than the much talked-about block-chain and AI revolution. We are talking about Hong Kong’s policy frameworks for digital open banking and online financial advice. Open banking (https://openbankproject.com) is a global regulatory trend. While the UK and the EU are leading the way with legislation, many South-East Asian markets are following suit. Similarly, the popularity and widespread availability of digital advisory platforms has prompted many regulators to define and clarify the rules in this new space.

Open Banking is coming to Hong Kong

No pain, no gain. Everyone knows that to become fitter and leaner, there is no way around a stringent exercise regime which will cost time, sweat, and yes, pain. However, the dictum does not apply to financial fitness. What seems impossible in the gym might be achievable for our financial health. Setting our saving targets to auto-pilot saves time and effort, and leaves us with more time to spend elsewhere, such as the gym. Here’s what to look out for when deciding to use the set-and-forget method of investment saving.

Achieve Financial Fitness through a Regular Savings Plan

As the first wave of so-called robo-advisor implementations in Asia has passed, many institutions that have turned on an automated investment advice ask themselves “And now what?”. Could it be that digital wealth management is a solution without a problem?

My Financial Advisor is a Robot, So What?

It’s 2017. Your car can drive itself, groceries are delivered to your doorstep and that pesky document in Mandarin? It’s translated into English in seconds. Yet online banking – or even worse – actually walking into a retail bank branch remains an excruciating, mind-numbingly bureaucratic procedure in this era of speed and efficiency. As one financial services CEO said to me: “If I never have to walk into my bank again, I would be a much happier woman for it.”

Welcome to the Age of Wealthcare

Roughly 1000 years ago, traders from east and west exchanged goods along a centuries old network of routes ranging from eastern China all the way to Western Europe. They traded silk, porcelain, and spices in exchange for wool, gold, and silver. And more than merchandise travelled along the networks. The constant movement and mixing of populations brought about the transmission of knowledge, technology, cultures and religions. There were many established routes and methods of transportation; camels plodding through the desert and ships navigating along the coast. Today, we refer to this trade network as the ancient Silk Road.

Belt and Road – an Investment Theme of Global Relevance

Fear of Missing Out, aka FOMO, is a constant in life for millennials. Several social media platforms provide a steady stream of proof that other people are *out there*, doing fun things that they’re not. But does this apply to investing? Do millennials feel like they are not being serviced according to their needs and preferences? For what we know, this seems to be the case.

An opportunity for wealth managers to better service millennials

Digital wealth management can mean many things. Over the past years several companies, sometimes referred to as robo-advisors, have emerged, each presenting their own version of digital wealth management. “Securities brokers, wealth managers, banks, insurance companies – each type of financial institution has their own set of ideas and their own set of challenges”, says John Robson, Quantifeed’s Chief Commercial Officer. He continues, “The common thread that ties all these organizations together however is that they want to go from selling products to solving their clients’ financial problems”. Products don’t necessarily get clients to where they want to be and fail to build any lasting trust or loyalty between the organisation and the client.

A Digital Wealth Management Journey: Automation, Deployment, Engagement

At the beginning of April 2017, the electric car manufacturer Tesla (TSLA) first overtook Ford (F), and a few days later GM (GM), to become the largest US car manufacturer in terms of market capitalisation. This is astonishing, given Tesla’s relatively small production of only 77,000 cars in 2016 vs. 10 million for GM. The market perceives Tesla not as a normal car manufacturer, it is a symbol of new automotive technology – a technology which culminates in the self-driving car. It has proven a disruptor to the car industry as consumers and investors alike are fascinated by its product. So far, the company has served the luxury segment, but recently announced plans to enter the truck segment and the mass market. Tesla is launching its mass-market Model 3 sedan in the second half of 2017 and intends to quickly ramp up its production capability to reach a target of 500,000 cars per year in 2018.

From Detroit to Silicon Valley: The Road to Self-Driving Cars

Today some of the investment strategies which are most in-demand by investors throughout Asia-Pacific have a thematic approach at their core. Thematic portfolios offer exposure to certain economic, social or technology trends, such as the increasing pressure on potable water supplies, the surging use of robots or the rise of social media.

Riding the Wave: How Robo-advice Provides Access to Global Investment Trends and Themes

Since the Fintech industry started to take off a couple of years ago, there’s been a lot of discussion about how disruptive these new types of businesses are. Headlines have been filled with this idea of a new generation of companies that are defying the status quo and reshaping financial services. But while the innovation that Fintech companies bring to the industry is very real, these companies are much less disruptive than what you’ve been told.

Robo-advice is Less Disruptive than You’ve Been Told

When cooking a meal, great importance is placed on the right ingredients. It’s not much different with index construction. Here too, the right stocks make the difference. At Quantifeed, we are transparent about our index design. In this article, we discuss some of our recipes.

The Proof is in the Pudding – Baking Thematic Indices

I always found jogging dull. But a little app on my phone has changed that. It is called “Zombies, run!” and simulates a pack of hungry zombies chasing me during my run through the deep dark forest. The app creates a whole new experience: I find jogging much more engaging – and I also run a bit faster.

A Digital Roadmap to Reaching Life Goals

Einstein dies and goes to heaven only to be informed that his room is not yet ready. “I hope you will not mind waiting in a dormitory and you will have to share the room with others” he is told by the doorman. “See, here is your first roommate. He has an IQ of 180!” – “Why that’s wonderful!”, says Albert. “We can discuss relativity theory!” “And here is your second roommate. His IQ is 120!” – “Why that’s wonderful!”, says Albert. “We can play Go!” “And here is your third roommate. His IQ is 80!” – “Why that’s wonderful!”, says Albert. “Say, where do you think the market is headed?”

Robo-advisors: Disciplined but Not Intelligent (Just Yet)

Now and then a paradigm shift occurs that can totally change the landscape of an entire industry.

Asia’s Great Leap – Finance for the Masses

Costless, secure and instantaneous financial transactions. That’s the future. Seems too good to be true but that’s exactly what blockchain technology will herald for the financial services industry.

Wealth Management’s Big Bang – Winners, Losers and the Future of Banks in the Blockchain Age

Automated investment services, aka robo-advisors, seemed like a distant destination just a little while ago. Yet financial institutions globally, and no less in Asia, are travelling that road faster than any of us might have expected

3 Reasons Why the Robo-advice Marathon Has Become a Sprint.

Quantifeed is a digital investing platform for financial institutiosn. Quantifeed's automated investment platform allows banks, brokers, and wealth planners to offer their customers a digital investing experience under their own brand.