Hong Kong-based digital wealth management services firm Quantifeed is joining forces with Kiatnakin Phatra Securities to launch Phatra Mandate Service, a discretionary portfolio management service for wealthy Thai individuals.
The platform supports activities such as research, order and trade management, position monitoring and reporting, and rebalancing across multiple accounts, and it is powered by Quantifeed’s QEngine.
The application enables financial consultants to advise customers on the management of portfolios of offshore ETFs and mutual funds, and its data analytics capacity and straight-through-processing function is meant to improve efficiency, and thereby lower clients’ costs.
“The platform will allow customers to invest with ease and in strict adherence to [their] investment parameters and sound risk management practices. The platform also fulfils retail investors’ desire to expand their investments outside of Thailand,” said Narit Kosalathip, head of wealth management group at Kiatnakin Phatra Securities.
The capital market business operated by securities companies Kiatnakin Phatra and Phatra Asset Management merged with Kiatnakin Phatra Bank to form the Kiatnakin Phatra Financial Group in 2012.
Lower fees
The Phatra Mandate platform is designed with “affluent Thais’ in mind”, the firm said, and will help them diversify their investments overseas.
Kiatnakin Phatra Securities’ asset allocation and investment committees on the platform will create the model portfolios on the platform using QEngine’s portfolio management application.
The service will also lower the investment minimum to $50,000 (£38,616, €42,358) and should reduce annual fees.
Headquartered in Hong Kong with a presence in Australia, India, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, Quantifeed provides digital wealth management services for financial institutions throughout the region.
The firm has partnerships with Taipei-based Cathay United to offer a robo-advisory platform called Cathayrobo, and has also joined with DBS in Singapore to launch DBS Digiportfolio.
Competition
Robo-advisory — or digital wealth management — platforms are competing aggressively throughout the region, although there have been few ventures in Thailand compared with the raft of launches in Singapore, such as Stashaway, Syfe and ride-hailing firm Grab.
However, Lu International partnered with Thailand’s Kasikornbank to create a digital wealth management platform in August. The subsidiary of China retail fintech firm Lufax Holding uses its parent’s “cloud-exporting” model for the online platform.
The few other robo-advisory platforms in Thailand include Robowealth’s Odini and Finnomena’s Nter, while Sydney-based Raiz Invest has indicated that it might enter the Thai market.
Yet, earlier this year SCB Julius Baer predicted that Thai high-net-worth individual wealth will exceed $400bn by the end of 2020 and will grow at a five-year CAGR of 9.9%.
A category of around of 30,000 rich Thai clients should encourage robo-advisory initiatives, concluded the firm, a joint venture between Siam Commercial Bank and the Zurich-based firm.
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