BearingPoint to expand EasyTax offering in Asia's private banking market
In a bid to deepen its presence in Asia’s banking community, international consulting firm BearingPoint has agreed a partnership with Asian Private Banker, an Asia-based intelligence, data and information platform which focuses on Asia's private wealth management communities.
While Asia’s banking sector is booming – assets under management held by the continent’s top 30 institutions now stands at $55 trillion according to Oliver Wyman – the sector too is facing the burden of growing regulatory requirements. As regulators, both global as well as local institutions, try to get more grip on financial markets and pave the way for more transparency and efficiency, regulatory pressure has spiralled since the outbreak of the financial crisis. A recent BCG report found that the number of regulatory changes for banks globally has now grown to over 200 per day, up from under 50 per day a decade ago.
The growing regulatory environment comes with a cost, both in terms of compliance and risk spending, and in terms of the time the ‘business’ is required to abide by procedures, regulations and reporting requirements. Technology can play a key role in making the process as efficient as possible – financial services institutions are therefore turning to RegTech – short for regulatory technology – as an avenue for this means.
In the private banking space, one such RegTech provider is BearingPoint. Its EasyTax solution, a standard software solution which enables private bankers to easily calculate withholding taxes and produce fiscal reports for clients, is used by over 80 financial institutions across mainly Europe and North America. “Following increased regulatory reporting requirements, we aim at replicating this success in APAC in the coming years. Aiming to stay at the forefront of advanced reporting solutions, we are positive that our EasyTax services will peak interest amongst private banking heads in Asia,” said Ronald Frey, a partner at BearingPoint. Prior to joining the consultancy in 1998, he served among others the private banking arms of Credit Suisse and UBS.
To showcase its EasyTax solution to private bankers in the region, BearingPoint has partnered with Asian Private Banker as the two newly-wed will co-host roundtables in Singapore and Hong Kong. “This will help us expand our our financial services footprint in the region and increase brand awareness in the Asian market,” commented Frey, who will himself be joining BearingPoint’s Singapore colleagues during the event. Across the region, BearingPoint has ten offices (China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey), many of which are operated in collaboration with Abeam Consulting, its Asian consultancy partner.
The first co-led roundtable will be held on May 16 in Hong Kong, while the day after, a roundtable will be organised in Singapore. Both meetings are invitation-only, reserved for CxO’s and leaders who sit at the apex of the private banking innovation and technology agendas of top foreign and local private banks.
Meanwhile, one Asian market that is set to majorly benefit from a changing regulatory landscape in financial services is China. As the government loosens a number of policies, assets under management (AUM) in the country are predicted to will almost double from $7.4 trillion this year to $14 trillion in 2022.
Related: Deloitte posits regulatory outlook for APAC financial services sector.