Research Program
The Australian Private Banking Council (APBC) provides members with a comprehensive annual research program that consists of six key elements:
- Primary research-based strategic reports
- Annual performance benchmarking
- Annual APBC Market outlook
- Quarterly client 'insight' presentations
- Quarterly Industry Review
- The APBC six-monthly council meeting
The APBC is a member-only, subscription-based research program. All of the research and content generated is at the direction of members and is for the proprietary use and benefit of members.
The councils are managed by Retail Finance Intelligence Ltd , a specialist strategic research house, www.rfintelligence.com.au
Primary research-based strategic reports
Throughout the course of the year, members will receive four research reports focusing on the private banking/ wealth management market in Australia. These reports will be based heavily on primary research, through face-to-face interviews with HNW individuals (A$1m+ in investible assets) and industry leaders.
Two HNW Interview based opinion papers
Two of the research reports will be styled as 'client opinion' papers. These will be based on 100 face-to-face HNW interviews. Each year council members will be canvassed as to what key questions they would like to ask HNW Australian individuals. The interviews will then form the backbone of the two reports looking at current and future needs and requirements, changing attitudes and opinions of service providers. The reports will provide analysis of the interview findings and aid strategic insight in identifying future growth opportunities.
The surveys will cover such issues as:
- Financial awareness of HNW clients (USD1m+)
- Usage of specific products
- Investment horizons
- Product and services needs
- Advisory, investment management, tax, trust, insurance and banking
- Product and service preferences
- Advisory, investment management, tax, trust, insurance and banking
- What aspects of service are most valued?
- Attitudes to current competitors
- Who is providing the best service?
- What brands are most valued and recognized?
- Gaps in current offerings
- Where are the opportunities for new products and offerings?
Two Best Practice reports
Two of the reports will be focused on best practice, each covering a topic such as a product or service, relationship model, staff retention strategy or segmentation approach. The chosen topic will be gathered each time by member consensus.
When conducting a study of best practice, RFI recognizes that it is critical to identify and define the measures of success, and ensure that these measure have relevance in a business context. The most important factor is that the best practice competitor example is clearly relevant to and actionable by other similar organizations.
If the example is replicable then there are three key conditions that must be satisfied for it to be considered 'best practice';
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The example must serve to maintain or increase customer satisfaction -
this is particularly relevant to wealth management where the competition for clients is more intense and customers have more power to choose their provider. -
The example must serve to maintain or increase staff satisfaction -
this is particularly relevant in wealth management where the retention of key staff and a good working culture are becoming increasingly important. -
The example must serve to maximize return on investment -
this condition relates to the satisfaction of shareholders and management as the success of any business is inextricably linked to the return that the business can provide in terms of net profit.
NB. For all of these reports the topics, issues and deliverables will be decided by council members
Key findings from all these reports can be incorporated into or form the backbone of the quarterly insight presentations
Quantitative benchmarking
In any benchmarking exercise the confidentiality of each institution's data is of paramount importance. For this reason, all information gathered will be anonymised and at no point will members be privy to information that is not proprietary.
RFI recognizes that in some cases it is possible to ascertain the identity of a piece of information based on the sheer size - or lack - of some institutions. For this reason RFI presents only ratios as a means of benchmarking, rather than absolute data. For example, rather than ranking institutions by number of clients or number of relationship managers RFI would use a measure such as clients per relationship manager.
Information collection
In discussion with members the RFI has identified key information points that once gathered enables RFI to conduct benchmarking. The information points fall into two distinct categories:
- Overall business information
- Wealth segment information
The benchmarking ratios are calculated based upon the information gathered and presented back in two separate categories. By dividing the benchmarking up at a segment level RFI ensures that the benchmarking is of relevance to all participants - not just those of a similar size. The segments identified are (including liabilities):
- 1m-2m, with $250,000 income
- 2m-4m
- 4m-10m
- 10m-20m
- 20m+
Once the information has been gathered and the ratios have been calculated, RFI then produces an individual presentation in PowerPoint for each member that will contain anonymous rankings of the ratios. This presentation is delivered to each participant on-site at a pre-arranged time.
The following graph shows an example of how the benchmarking is presented to members:
Quarterly Industry Review
Every quarter members receive an e- newsletter containing the following
- An interview with an industry leader
- Australian private banking news
- Global private banking news
- An issue based article
APBC Market Outlook
The APBC Market Outlook is an annual publication containing private banking industry commentary, overview, opportunities and trends. The Outlook will be published for council members in July of each year.
The outlook provides members with an overview of the state of play in the market, looks at hot topics for the following financial year and identifies key opportunities and trends. This will also form the background for the first on site presentation of the year for each council member.
APBC six-monthly council meeting
The APBC council meeting is a six monthly closed-door roundtable discussion. The aim of each meeting is to provide a confidential forum where CEOs and heads of private wealth managers can discuss industry and national issues. Each meeting has an acting chairman and a guest speaker invited to promote thought-provoking discussion around a central theme. Themes will be chosen by members and will be relevant to the private wealth management industry in Australia. The themes might include issues as diverse as sustainable investment, the promotion of Australia as a private wealth management center or the establishment of a wealth management training academy. The meeting is not open to vendors or consultants.
