02/11/2021 – Tokeportal’s own content

In the previous episode of our mini-interview series, we featured Balázs Faluvégi, and this time Dr Péter Szabó answered our questions. Péter, a private banking expert, has been working for the past 20 years in the wealth management and private banking divisions of various Swiss and Hungarian banks, focusing on HNWI clients and their families. During this time, he has gained extensive practical experience in the fields of CRM, business development, wealth planning, estate planning, portfolio management, private equity and venture capital investments. His areas of expertise include banking, portfolio management, fintech, investment, venture capital and private equity. As of today, he is Partner of a Zürich based Family Office.

My generation wore out the benches of universities and colleges in the 90s, right after the change of regime. For most of us, the sense of entrepreneurial life in today’s sense didn’t float, so the chosen higher education major largely determined our future career. Today, it seems almost natural for a young person to think about Start-Up solutions as a teenager, planning to then start working on the implementation of ideas in collaboration with others. During this process, they face a lot of practical experience, success, and perhaps even more failures, as a “side effect” their problem-solving ability and focus on solutions develops rapidly. We, the mentors coming from a generation older, can best help business processes and the development of enterprises if we look at individual companies not through the eyes of owners and managers who are sensitive and attentive to every detail, but rather through the eyes of customers, partners, we provide our business experience in areas relevant to potential investors.

In 2006, I moved from the Hungarian commercial banking system with a short market economy history to the Swiss financial system, which was based on centuries-old traditions and consisted of more than three hundred financial institutions. For me, the most striking differences were unconditional customer focus, maximizing the quality of asset management services, and absolute bank secrecy, which seemed unquestionable at the time. I believe that responding quickly and efficiently to customer needs, pricing transparency, improving service processes, and ultimately increasing customer satisfaction can have a positive impact not only on the performance of financial institutions but also of any service company.

In the wealth management business, both building and serving a clientele is a constantly evolving and building collaboration between the client and the service provider, centred on trust, stability and security. Users of private banking wealth management are extremely busy and successful entrepreneurs and managers who entrust the management of their family savings and the related additional tasks to specialized banks and family offices. It is not an easy thing to win and maintain the trust of customers, as many direct and indirect competitors are working hard to win the favour of customers. We can only be permanently successful if we can provide our partners with personalized attention, care and, ultimately, a continuous customer experience in addition to their basic financial expectations.

In the first line, it is important to mention that the interests of our customers and our business are the same: to expect the best possible, most flexible quality of service from our partner banks, all at the lowest available price. One of the important cornerstones of this is that we do not accept any benefits or commissions from cooperating financial service providers (our clients’ account banks or investment fund managers). In addition, we strive to increase the number of cooperating financial institutions and diversify their services so that customers from different backgrounds can choose the bank that suits them best and the most personalized solutions for them. Another compelling argument in favour of asset managers is that pricing is completely transparent. Family Office partners pay a fraction of the normal costs to the banks, and the remuneration is individually agreed with the trustee. Many of the customers keep several accounts at different banks. It saves a lot of money and time by contacting only his trustee instead of three or four bank advisers, who then interacts with all the banks involved according to the customer’s interests and expectations. communicate and act in a coordinated manner.

The financial sector has undergone a greater reorganization in the last 10 years than in the previous few decades. We can refer here to increasing the efficiency of payment systems, the rapid development of blockchain systems, the popularity of cryptocurrencies or the rise of tokenization. On the one hand, capital market regulations, customer protection systems, and bank compliance regulations are becoming more stringent, while FinTech businesses are growing every day, trying to break into areas that are not yet covered by central regulations. These new players are at the forefront of digitalisation, attracting customers from traditional financial institutions by offering them cheaper, more accessible products and more convenient services. I expect that as more and more players enter the market, competition will increase, the financial sector will continue to expand, traditional service providers will be forced to step in, and the big question is how and with what solutions they can keep up with innovative solutions from new service providers.

If you would like to know more about Peter, check his mentor profile!