Nordnet launches Robosave: Where is the Nordic digital wealth management heading next?

On last Thursday, one of the largest Pan-Nordic online banks, mutual fund distributors, and stock brokers Nordnet Bank AB unveiled its new robo-advisory service for its Swedish clients. The new independent robo-advising service is called Robosave, and this move signifies a new strategic direction in Nordnet’s overall story. Nordnet has a long history, alongside its main Swedish-only competitor Avanza, of continuously launching new innovative financial services. Nordnet’s value proposition, as has been noted by Pekka Puustinen in his great book FinancialServiceLogic: In the Revolution of Exchange in Banking and Insurance, focuses mainly on the promise of functional value (and associated benefits).

Nordnet has focused primarily, but not exclusively, on streamlining internal operations, extending the benefits of its services beyond the plain vanilla trade capture, clearing & settlement, and reporting – all are essential hallmarks of functional value. The primary focus of financial companies, that are focused on the functional value is to provide as straightforward and uncomplicated financial service as possible. Companies, such as Nordnet that concentrate on promising functional value need to focus on several things simultaneously: the focus should be primarily on fulfilling the promise of functional value (and secondarily economic value) by designing, testing and managing it with a particular focus in mind. What does this mean in reality? Basically, it’s about reducing waste by streamlining and simplifying internal and external processes, fast and efficient financial (and customer) service, eliminating low-value service, providing value-added services, and good stakeholder relations (e.g., partners, distribution, etc.).

...

The Nordic robo-advisory ecosystem is still minuscule when compared to neighboring Germany, France and UK. I expect the Nordic robo-advisory landscape to grow, and as the overall market grows, new entrants will inevitably force traditional wealth managers, brokers, and financial advisors to compete on multiple fronts as robo-advisory could be one of the key components of the evolution of mass/affluent wealth management model thanks to new digital capabilities.

--

Read more...

Read and comment my past articles on the robo-advisory and hybrid advisory models. What are the biggest opportunities and challenges from your point of view?

• My Article Series on Robo-Advisory
• Just Take a Look Under the Hood: Modern Portfolio Theory, Investment Management and Robo-Advisors (Part 7)
• Chatbots for wealth management, trade execution and portfolio management? Yes, please!