Fintech Robos Built to be Hub for MENA’s Long-term Savings & Pensions Business

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Providing Multi-Product, Multi-Investment, Multi-Currency, Multi-Jurisdiction, Multi-Distributor and Multi-Custodian Capability, Fintech Robos Built to be Hub for MENA’s Long-term Savings & Pensions Business

“The Company is filling a huge gap in regional know-how and technology”

For decades people in the Arab world have lacked access to quality financial education which could have provided sound financial literacy contributing to the building of financial resilience and security. Not only were such education programs and initiatives absent in our socio-economic endeavours, but thus far no local business in the region is actively and industrially focused on long-term savings and pensions. Fintech Robos has recognized the dire need to both create and accelerate financial literacy, and to build a long-term savings and pension business.

For the first objective, the Company has been running a series of highly recognized and attended annual industry platforms, including: Arab Pensions & Social Insurance Conference, Arab Financial Literacy & Savings Conference and the MENA Robo Advisor & Mass-Affluent Savings Conference. Together, they fully cover the whole spectrum of financial literacy, financial planning, savings, investments, social security, private pensions, Robo advisors, wealth management and personal finance, and raise institutional and consumer awareness.

Long-term savings and investments (LTSI) by individuals enhance their financial security while also supporting growth and financial development. Evidence shows that financial knowledge and skills are positively related to LTSI behaviour, and indicates a strong correlation between levels of financial literacy and retirement wealth accumulation. However, both the quantity and quality of LTSI are often worryingly low, pointing to an important role for financial education to increase levels of financial literacy and thus improve LTSI among individuals. The aim of our conferences is to stimulate knowledge development and insight, and spark more, similar events in the region.

For the second objective, Fintech Robos is being built to power long-term savings and pensions. Our aim is to provide the MENA region with its own home grown equivalent of the likes of AIG and Fidelity of US and AXA, Aviva, Allianz and Phoenix Group of Europe. Their solutions cover workplace pension schemes, retail savings and investments. They support long-term savings and retirement products to help people save for their future. Our pension solutions involve annuity-like vesting, and retirement planning options including both End-of-Service Indemnity and drawdown policies.

Our business is purpose driven, catering to the needs of under-served mass and mass-affluent segments. Nearly 60% of MENA population isn’t under any social insurance protection, where ageing populations across the region are challenging the sustainability of government Pay-As-You-Go pension systems.

Fintech Robos as a Dynamic Technology

Our solution has been designed to support B2B, B2C, and B2B2C financial and pension institutions. The key capabilities and competitive features of our solution may be summarized as follows:

Targeting mass market (low-tickets high volume):

The system has been uniquely designed to support the processing of recurring, low-contribution (low-ticket) business of mass savers and investors with access to quality global market products. This is a key strength for the Company, allowing for it to be on par with global financial leaders in the savings space. By designing a suitable product for the mass segment, the proposition can be made viable to both business and to individuals, without having a heavy cost structure or a need for in-depth investment experience.

Robo advisory

Our system includes a Robo Advisory module and other digital tools to help mass savers address their savings and pension needs. The Robo Advisor has been designed on a scientific, actuarial model using expertise in the pension space. The module consists of a set of calculators and financial illustration tools to give users assistance and gamified simulations in their financial planning.

Actively monitoring and managing client portfolios

Fintech Robo’s systems include rich functionalities and tools that monitor client portfolios against their saving goals and provide them with recommendations and tips on corrective actions. The system also monitors market movements and executes portfolio rebalancing for clients where necessary to maintain clients’ positions at the same investment risk level they have originally selected.

Reducing operational complexity and cost

The system requires minimal steps to be deployed and configured, and has been designed to automate the vast majority of processes and activities to reduce risks associated with the execution; thus reducing operational overheads and eventual cost to clients. The solution is scalable with business growth, allowing institutions to expand business without worrying about system capability.

Different business models

Using the system's flexible organisational structure, the solution can support different business models such as retail, corporate savings schemes, and financial distributors. It has a different set of tools to support each business model and automate the operational processes of each company’s settings. The security and user management module will ensure that the information of each organisation is segregated and protected, and information can be accessed by privileged users only.

System Integration

The solution has been designed using a modular approach, where each component of the system is linked to a set of APIs that is responsible to perform a set of activities. Using the solution's wide range of APIs allows the system to be easily integrated with the systems of partnering institutions.

Different markets and different products

While designing the solution, we’ve taken into consideration the that different geographies have different regulatory and compliance environments. The solution easily supports designing multiple products to be offered in multiple investments (such as Mutual funds, ETFs, bespoke strategies), in multiple currencies, by multiple distributors, in multiple jurisdictions and via multiple custodians.