There is a large gap between private banking and your average smartphone app, according to a new study. But a small avant-garde makes headway.
Swiss traditional private banking pure-play Julius Baer seems to be the grand citadel of Insta-bankers. That is the surprising conclusion of a study by consultancy Columbus Consulting.
It ranked 27 of the larger Swiss private banks based on how they did in both digitalization and client experience.
Strong YouTube Growth
According to Columbus, Julius Baer is the most digitalized private bank in the country. «It made the top in 2022 based on a strong showing in social networking and good results for its website and digital marketing», the team around partner Rémi Chadel indicated.
The bank showed a sharp increase in YouTube subscribers, good engagement on Instagram, and had the second-largest Linkedin community among Swiss private banks surveyed.
But the experts also maintain the bank lags others when it comes to a mobile smartphone app.
Piguet Galland Making up Lost Ground
In any case, it was enough to bunt local investment house Vontobel out of first place. They didn't make the grade as a result of a «weak social networking performance», the study says. And that is exactly where Julius Baer scored highly. Lombard Odier, which came in third place, managed to outdo the others in social media and in digital marketing. But the Geneva-based private bank did not do as well when it came to its website and mobile apps.
Pictet came in fourth, as it tested best for client experience based on a sample test. Others in the top ten include Union Bancaire Privée, EFG, Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV) unit Piguet Galland (which jumped up five places), Zurich-based private bank Bergos, J. Safra Sarasin and Banque Edmond de Rothschild.
Rising Investment
Even though the rankings did not change that much last year, investments still rose substantially. According to the study's authors, spending on digital marketing alone was up 15 percent at 2.9 million francs while their websites drew 31 percent more views than they did in 2020.
In total, the institutes get about 525,000 visits a month on their diverse channels. That means that the digitalization drive prompted by the pandemic shows little signs of ebbing.
But activity levels are uneven. The three leading banks in the ranking make up 85 percent of all internet consumption of all the 27 banks reviewed. About 30 percent of those surveyed did not offer a mobile app. That is not much of a change from a year earlier, the authors maintain, somewhat laconically. But that nonchalance could turn on them quickly given the current pace of progress and change.
The Importance of Linkedin
The private banks are also dwarfed when it comes to digitalization by the retail banks. Swiss postal unit Postfinance, which emphasizes TikTok, has 14 times as much traffic as all the 27 private banks do together.
Some have been trying to catch up by experimenting. Apparently, Linkedin has become a preferred meeting site for new, highly affluent clients. It is also the leading social outlet for private bankers, with the highest overall engagement at 78 percent, and 72 percent of bankers being subscribers.
Making Sense of Data
Some institutes have made it a habit to communicate digitally, much as they did during the pandemic. Private banks have also been invested heavily in digitalizing their client relationships and integrating that with their needs and demands.
That means that some of the institutes are starting to understand what they want through data. Digital marketing has become a new tool in the advisory arsenal and the Columbus consultants are certain it will help them introduce new services in future.
