CaixaBank has just launched a service for all its private banking clients through which they can receive global portfolio advice at a cost of 0.7% on the recommended volume of assets. Advisory GPS, that is its name, aims above all to attract the profile of a wealthy clientele who until now received advice in a non-independent manner, even if the entity does not set itself any recruitment objectives.
The wind of change favoring the elimination of rebates (the percentage of the cost of a financial product that the distributor keeps in exchange for its marketing) continues to blow in Brussels, despite the fact that the European Parliament has approved a series of amendments in April on the initial text of the Retail Investment Strategy (RIS) which makes it possible to maintain incentives for the sale of funds as long as it is not carried out under the aegis of the council, in exchange for more transparency in the cost and the choice of investment vehicles.
The legislative development of the RIS was paralyzed by the European elections in May and until the new Commission is formed it will not be able to move forward, knowing that the text could be modified again depending on the new composition of the chamber European legislation. . But almost no one in the wealth management sector now doubts that sooner or later retrocessions will end up being completely banned.
In this sense, CaixaBank is ahead of the competition with the new advisory service it has just launched, after having managed to position itself as a leader in discretionary portfolio management, where it already manages 48 billion euros, according to the latest data from Inverco.
It is precisely this sector of activity, in which the client delegates investment decisions to a company in exchange for a commission based on its risk profile, is the one that Spanish financial institutions have promoted the most in recent years , in the heat of European regulations which were being forged. In fact, 25% of funds distributed in Spain already do it in this way, in addition to the fact that almost 47% do it through advice, without distinguishing whether they are independent or not.
So the next step for companies, once they have verified the success of the portfolio management model, which manages 126 billion euros in total, will be to promote advice. And this is where CaixaBank, with Advisory GPS, wants to position itself ahead of the competition.
Actually, This service will be paid and with access to its own classes (this is the name given to classes of funds which do not allow retrocessions and are less expensive) intended for non-independent advisory clients.
It should be remembered that according to the annual private banking ranking of elEconomista.es, CaixaBank Private Banking is positioned in second position in terms of volume of assets (see graph), behind Santander, which has just hired Víctor Allende at the helm. head of this area, the person responsible for the rise of CaixaBank in the field of asset management and wealth advice.
The 0.7% fee that Advisory GPS will apply is only 10 basis points above what the Catalan entity charges for discretionary portfolio management, suggesting an attempt to transfer a significant portion of customers to the consultative model in exchange for paying a little more for the new service.
How it works
Advisory Global Portfolio Strategy plays on words with the acronym GPS by wanting to become a sort of market navigator for private banking clients. Actually, It is a platform developed through Aladdin Wealth, BlackRock’s risk management technology.which allows personalized investment proposals to be made to clients in portfolios of funds, ETFs or specific securities, based on the profile and preferences of each investor, also taking into account possible biases that they wish to integrate, like the style value or dividends, or even alternative assets, as long as they are liquid products bearing the Uctis seal.
The platform is also capable of anticipating possible portfolio scenarios in the face of certain market movements, and makes it possible to integrate the firm’s overall strategic vision and make proposals for development, which are always recommended.
