The study suggests that affluent Asian investors are more willing than some of their global peers to hire and fire platforms, and their need for advice has risen over the past year.

In a new report, global data house Refinitiv finds that Asian clients are among the most dissatisfied by their digital platform experiences and the most likely to move to a different offering, suggesting that wealth managers must sharpen up their act.

The firm carried out a study based on views of more than 500 self-directed and advised mass-affluent people in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

Nearly one-third (32 per cent) of Asia-Pacific investors said they were more likely to need investment advice now than six to 12 months ago.

Strikingly, with a Net Promoter Score of zero, loyalty to providers is far weaker in Asia than in Europe (17 per cent) or North America (37 per cent); 22 per cent of APAC investors were willing to switch platforms within a year because of their poor digital experiences, the study found. 

Such studies suggest how a more digital wealth management industry could be even more competitive, with a fierce battle among firms to attract and retain clients. The findings may also point to how expectations change as a younger cohort of HNW individuals rises to prominence.

Among other details, Refinitiv’s study showed that 59 per cent of APAC investors used apps to access investment accounts and 41 per cent relied on websites on mobile devices. Also, there are more active traders visible in this region than in North America or Europe, necessitating more frequent portfolio interactions, it said. 

Some 69 per cent of investors in China said they valued macroeconomic analysis (of global and national economic data); compared with just 29 per cent in Hong Kong, where security and mutual fund analyses were preferred. In Singapore, all four types of analysis (macroeconomic, security, mutual fund and technical) were said to be almost equally important.

Nearly half (48 per cent) of investors said they were increasingly enthusiastic about ESG investing. 

“In the face of unprecedented market volatility and uncertainty, investors have accelerated their trading activity and the significance of trusted and accurate data to guide investment decisions has never been greater,” Ronan Leonard, regional proposition sales director, wealth, APAC, London Stock Exchange Group, said. (LSEG is now the owner of Refinitiv.)