A $300 Billion Manager Reveals His New Availability Credo
A $300 Billion Nordic Manager Reveals His New Availability Credo
(Bloomberg) -- At one of the biggest money managers in Northern Europe, the age of Covid-19 and Zoom has brought with it a couple of epiphanies. Firstly, even the most stubborn clients will get used to video conferencing and secondly, there’s no going back.
Snorre Storset oversees about $300 billion as head of wealth management at Nordea Bank Abp. When the lockdown came, he says a lot of his high-net-worth clients didn’t much like the idea of being forced to take financial advice online instead of in person. But they soon realized it was suddenly easier to get a meeting, albeit virtual, whenever it suited them.
In Norway, the richest Nordic economy, about 90% of Nordea’s client meetings are now online, compared with about 40% before Covid-19, said Storset, who’s based in Oslo.
“It’s a change that will last when we return to more normal times,” he said in an interview. “Some of our private banking customers have been skeptical toward the new tools, but they now see that it works.”
He says one of the key reasons clients are warming to the new world order is that it comes with “higher availability” of financial advisers.
Blurred Lines
The observation fits well with the bigger picture. With Covid-19 forcing people to stay at home, many are finding that their workdays are getting longer as the line between private and professional lives gets more blurred than ever. Longer hours for bankers mean better access for clients.
“What we see our customers demanding more than ever is advisory,” Storset said. “We’ve been proactive and contacted our customers. We see the extra value of advice in uncertain times.”
As private banking clients get used to having their advisers available at all hours, there are other signs the financial industry is making some permanent changes to its business model as a result of Covid-19.
Johan Torgeby, the chief executive of SEB AB in Stockholm, says many of the adjustments his bank has made during the lockdown have resulted in digital tweaks that will likely stick after the crisis.
“We’re all now learning and trying new things,” he said in an interview. “So we might have a permanent change in how we view digitization of banking.”
Torgeby says SEB is also trying to figure out where clients’ limits are when it comes to accepting virtual banking. He says there are still lots of questions.
“How do you meet and interact with each other in the new world? What is the acceptance rate by clients to meet us digitally or by telephone, what is the acceptance of a client not to see us in person but use the app? We’re trying it out,” Torgeby said.
At Nordea’s wealth management unit, Storset says he managed to bring in new money in April, in net terms, after the meltdown of the first quarter triggered outflows of about 3 billion euros.
“Especially older customers sold, and an overweight of men. They sold mixed funds and some equity funds,” he said. “A lot of it ends up in bank accounts. So for Nordea customers, the change isn’t that dramatic. The 3 billion-euro outflow may contribute negatively. But we see that some customers are returning to the market. So over time it’s not clear that it will be that negative.”
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