Last year, after moving to our new office in Amsterdam Zuidoost, we invited clients during the Housewarming Week for a guided tour of the new building and KAS Lab. Our clients were asked to share their ideas and feedback. We collected and analysed the feedback and used it as new input for innovation. Based on the feedback, KAS Lab is now working on four innovation projects. Risk Solutions recently implemented a FinTech solution for their Overlay service.

Get more options with Risk's FinTech-solution

Monique explained one of the developments that has been implemented at the Risk Solutions department. This department with Risk experts support clients in their execution and implementation of an investment strategy. Her department must therefore listen carefully to clients' needs and wishes. The feedback we received indicated that clients were seeking for more control through manageable and standardized processes, and more transparency.

FinTech offered the solution here. MatchingLink's algorithms and workflow functionality automated the entire process of hedging currency risk, with a so-called currency overlay. The new technology allows to perform the steps automatically (standard process), without restricting any of the clients' options.

Innovation across multiple horizons

Otto presented the latest developments on which the KAS Lab innovators are currently working on. At KAS Lab we are working on solutions with new technologies and systems and exploring new markets, with keeping in mind that we continuously want to improve our service and product quality towards our clients. Our innovation programme is executed based on McKinsey's 3 horizon model. This model offers a clear structure, focusing on execution and results.

  1. KAS Lab is, for example, developing KASPER, an initiative for index investing. A small pension fund wishes to invest in global indices, without the intervention of foreign investment managers. Our expertise within the bank enables us to ensure that clients using KASPER do their international investments at a minimum of taxes. At the moment, our colleagues of KAS Lab have a pilot of KASPER live. This pilot is used to build up a track record, in preparation of the market launch. The current expectation is that KASPER can be live within 9 months.
  2. Another initiative from KAS Lab is Voteroom, an innovation that improves voting at shareholders' meetings. With the help of Voteroom, a shareholder can vote at a shareholders' meeting without the thresholds and additional actions that are now needed. Voteroom makes the voting process faster and more transparent. As a result, we see a greater commitment to shareholders to vote and exercise their influence. In addition, this gives the Executive Board better insight in the ideas of their shareholders.
  3. Fundhunter, the third innovation KAS Lab is currently working on, will make the process of investing in unlisted funds more efficient for both the fund managers and the investors. The product is aimed at Dutch fund managers and, like Voteroom, uses blockchain technology. At the moment it takes at least 7 days to go through the process before investments can actually be made in unlisted funds. Fundhunter ensures that transactions can be settled in real time at the calculated Net Asset Value (NAV), because reconciliation is no longer needed. In addition, Fundhunter will save costs by 50%-70%. KAS Lab is still looking for partners to further develop Fundhunter together.
  4. The fourth initiative KAS Lab is currently working on is called 'Data Collector'. In our current services, we support professional investors with their reporting obligations to management and regulators (including the Dutch FTK reports). Because of the reporting obligations that our clients deal with, we produce many reports. The question that Data Collector will answer is whether we can centralize the way reports are generated with the different types of data. Different authorities ask for the same data in different reports. An acceleration can be made using the same data for different reports. In addition, we want to observe and predict trends based on the data we process, and report relevant data and information back to the market.

At the subsequent summer drinks we received interesting and positive reactions from clients on innovation processes. A number of clients indicated that they would like to co-create and work with us on the innovation initiatives. Are you also interested in providing feedback and co-creating one of the four innovation initiatives? Please contact Otto.

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KAS BANK NV published this content on 02 July 2018 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 02 July 2018 10:08:02 UTC