Case Study — 30 Jan, 2024
A Retail Broker Accelerates Business with an Exceptional Online Experience
THE CLIENT:
A Pacific-based retail brokerage firm
USERS:
End customers
Digital experiences are fundamental to the evolving financial services landscape. Changing client needs and the increasing demand for personalized content are shaping the future of the industry. However, aggregating disparate financial datasets, maintaining their dynamic nature and then, ultimately, visualizing that data on a web or mobile platform can be extraordinarily difficult. [1]
In addition, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have a significant role to play in financial services today, aiding data discovery, comprehension and visualization – vital components of the industry.
This Pacific-based retail brokerage firm was looking to create a more seamless and satisfying online experience for its customers to enable them to easily research tradeable securities across both domestic and international markets.
They wanted to find a trusted partner that had expertise in financial data, website design and technology to work with the IT team to take the firm's capabilities to a new level.
Exceptional online experiences have become a must-have in the retail brokerage space to acquire and retain customers interested in both domestic and international holdings.
Pain Points
The Client wanted to upgrade the online experience for their retail brokerage customers who were being routed to a third-party to execute trades and conduct research on international securities. The Client wanted to:
- Ensure that the overall research and trading experience for international securities was seamless and accessible;
- Enable users to research and trade securities on both domestic and international exchanges with the same experience.
The Client was familiar with S&P Global Market Intelligence ("Market Intelligence") and reached out to see what capabilities were available.
The Solution
Specialists from Market Intelligence discussed how Fincentric™, an S&P Global company, designs, develops and manages financial digital solutions, such as websites and mobile applications, customizing every engagement for each client’s unique needs.
Fincentric makes financial information approachable, useable, and insightful by leveraging state-of-the-art financial data visualizations and intuitive user interfaces (UIs) so users can easily navigate the global financial markets. Through a collaborative approach, Fincentric actively engages with clients to identify, understand, and deliver tailored outcomes based on:
|
|
A team of innovators |
A highly experienced team of innovators incorporates the latest emerging technology to transform user online workflows. Cutting-edge investor and advisor experiences keep clients ahead of the competition. |
|
|
An intelligent data platform |
Custom tools and applications for advanced analytics, calculations and other derived content deliver captivating and carefully curated displays for persona-driven scenarios, rooted in a profound understanding of each client's unique needs and perspectives. |
|
|
High-quality data aggregation |
Aggregation includes consumption of 4,000+ inbound data feeds from 1,500+ unique sources in a variety of formats, plus clients' proprietary data. A deep knowledge of the nuances of each data set and how they work together provides clients with an unrivaled advantage when it comes to connecting the dots and delivering essential insights their end users need. |
|
|
A wide set of core capabilities |
A deep library of existing capabilities serves as the foundation for new implementations. These core capabilities include charting, screening, messaging and portfolios, which can be configured to meet customer-specific requirements and significantly decrease time to market. |
Key Benefits
The Client was impressed with the way Fincentric collaborates with clients to create innovative user experiences for the display of complex data, helping novice to professional investors make more informed decisions. They recognized that Fincentric's 30+ years of experience working with some of the largest financial institutions in the industry would make the company an important partner with a deep understanding of how financial data sets work together to create a top-notch user experience. They subscribed to the offering for API services, UI and user experience (UX) design and front-end development and are now benefiting from having:
- Expanded their pre-trade research functionality across international markets and extended asset classes available to retail users.
- Reduced time to market to launch additional exchanges since global data (both market data and retail-facing fundamental data) is already integrated in Fincentric’s data platform.
- Personalized research experiences for users that are highly scalable with watchlists, alerts and more.
- Productivity-enhancing screening tools and a wide range of user analytical tools to assess both domestic and international stocks, including:
- Data visualization tools to easily communicate complex data relationships and data-driven insights.
- Interactive charting to uncover relationships between different types of data.
- SmartText for narratives and informative context to better understand the data.
- Portfolio analysis to look at the performance of different groupings of companies.
Fincentric is also leveraging AI to gain new metadata insights across research reports and other text-based models, which is particularly relevant within the self-directed retail advisory space.
[1] "How to Adapt to Digital Disruption in Financial Services: Driving change through digital experiences & flexible data delivery", S&P Global Market Intelligence, October 4, 2023, https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/blog/how-to-adapt-to-digital-disruption-in-financial-services-driving-change-through-digital-experiences-and-flexible-data-delivery.