FTT Embedded Finance UK & Europe showcased this panel discussion moderated by Richard Maton, Managing Director at Aperio Strategy. Rockstar speakers reflected on the learnings from brokerages, on integrating investing into vertical offerings through embedded investment. The panel also explored the most profitable products in embedded wealth management and building APIs to achieve seamless account opening, funding, trading, and portfolio management.
Is wealth management the next logical step towards embedded finance? Charlotte Kanagasabapathy, Director of Innovation at Barclays, commented “There has never been a bigger need for technology and innovation in the space. Demographics in the market show that 1% of UK individuals hold 25% of the wealth. 80% of wealth gains since the financial crisis have been from people who hold existing assets.”
Charlotte added that “Asset prices and the cost of living and houses have gone up around 10 times in recent years, compared to wages. There is a real need to help people invest and grow their wealth and I think embedding investing into different non-financial journeys can really make a difference.”
Mark Hipperson, Founder and CEO at Ziglu, explained that Ziglu are working on bringing the best of the challenger bank into the crypto world. “Crypto has been a relatively dark area,” Mark said, “Approximately 40% of UK adults have any sort of crypto exposure. However, there is a lot of interest from people on getting into crypto, but they don’t really know how to. That is why is very important to deliver brilliant UI and UX design and make sure you put the customer first.”
Linking back to Ziglu’s mission on embedded finance, Mark commented that, “The embedding of finance is critical to support younger generations who perhaps don’t understand very much about finance.”
Karan Shanmugarajah, CEO at WealthKernel, commented “Your typical professional searching for Wealth Management apps, that customer base is probably well looked after, but the rest of society that is not really plugged in but are still looking for wealth management solutions in different ways, are the ones that our customers are saving for.”
The discussion also highlighted how important is to educate, inform and make people aware of the risks and challenges of investing, especially with younger demographics, as well as the differences between investing and savings.
Watch the full panel discussion below:
The next edition of FTT Embedded Finance & Super-Apps will take place in London on 13th May 2025 and live as part of the FTT Fintech Festival on 11th – 12th November 2024 at The Brewery, London. Save the dates!