Security Bank automates wealth management business

MANILA, Philippines — Security Bank Corp. has signed a five-year contract to automate its wealth management processes in line with efforts to become one of the most technologically advanced banks in the Philippines.

Security Bank is tapping Swiss developer Avaloq to employ Avaloq core platform in its wealth management business, opening up another opportunity for the bank to smoothen its operations.

Avaloq commercial head for Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa Gery Dachlan told The STAR that the Avaloq core platform would make processes easier for Security Bank.

The platform automates the end-to-end procedures in wealth management, from the entry of an order to the reporting of investments.

Dachlan said the software is equipped with the capacity to assess funds, payments and securities in an instant.

Dachlan said the bank could focus its resources in developing and marketing new financial services.

The bank may also explore other markets and opportunities with the savings it will incur from the automation of wealth management.

On the other hand, Dachlan said the platform also supplies Security Bank wealth managers with a dashboard that contains an overview of client profiles.

Through this, Security Bank wealth managers can study their clients more, allowing them to put together the best investment packages for specific portfolios.

“It (Avaloq core platform) is a single source of proof, all the transactions, portfolio, information, and it allows banks to book transactions with the right risk controls in place,” Dachlan said.

Lucose Eralil, enterprise, technology and operations segment head at Security Bank, said domestic banks have a lot of catching up to do on digitalization.

Still, Security Bank is committed to become the most technology-driven bank in the Philippines by 2025.

“I call it one of the last frontiers of transformation—the banking space in the Philippines—if you look at it compared to Southeast Asia. Most banks in the Philippines, from an architectural and a technological standpoint, are still a generation behind [compared to] most of the mature markets in Southeast Asia,” Eralil told The STAR.

Security Bank’s technology spend reached more than 12 percent of its revenues between January and September 2023, as the bank upgraded its digital backbone for all of its segments.

Security Bank’s partner Avaloq provides banking software for over 160 clients in 35 countries, with roughly $4.5 trillion in assets being managed in its platform.