9OCTOBER 2025Use case definition - Difficulty identifying valid use cases that speak to the banks and clients' combined objectives; this is balancing out the need for the bank to see a return on the investment in a new asset class and the objective of the client to gain access to innovative investment scenarios. There is no one size fits all answer to these challenges, the big consulting firms will all provide very valuable opinions, but they are just that. This is not a cookie-cutter problem to solve as each bank's digital fingerprint will be different, and each bank will have different strategies by market and line of business.Regardless, the answer very clearly is not to "do nothing." At some point, because there is a continued concerted effort from intelligent technologists who will not rest, the technology constraints on scaling will be resolved. In regions such as Asia Pacific, where the volume of transactions is a problem that has to be addressed digitally, the local regulatory teams are helping banks to experiment because the region's growth is intrinsically linked with the scaling of trade digitally. When the two major headwinds meet and eventually the pathway forward is visibly less turbulent, only the organisations experimenting "in earnest" with pilots on the verge of going to scale will be in the pole position to accelerate. Fast followers will be able to make good progress by looking at their core strengths, such as custody as a service and by ensuring the strength of their corporate branding is retained as it moves from traditional to modern products. Branding can help because clients who want to evolve their portfolio to new digital asset classes will always trust the iconic brands provided they have got the solutions to work with. Investing in use cases that start with "do what you do today but do it better" will help the bank make progress and address some of the challenges listed above whilst allowing it enough time to observe the outcomes and progress iteratively.Finally, investing in carefully curated use cases that address efficiency gains and provide valuable insights into the scaling challenge from both a technology and operational perspective should be prioritized. Strategies incorporating the modernisation of banking platforms alongside these experiments will put the bank in a very good position to accelerate when the chequered flag is lifted. The rise of digital banking and the increasing demand for digital assets will continue to shape the future of wealth management in the coming years
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