strengthened the influence of retail investors across the board .”
Houlihan says other significant contributing factors are Open Banking and robotic technologies . “ The implementation of Open Banking has been very significant . It allows people to have access to all of their investments across platforms and their bank account information in one place . It ’ s an incredible development – one that is making people ’ s lives easier . This is something that will continue to grow in prominence .
“ The development of robo-advice has also been significant , with many suggesting that it would make human advice obsolete . However , the initial uptake hasn ’ t been as ground breaking as first anticipated . There has been more demand for ‘ do-it-yourself ’ advice – such as with Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell – where the individual takes the risk on themselves using the research provided .”
The future of investment Osman predicts ESG becoming central to the investment space . “ As 2021 witnessed a record-breaking investment into ESG-focused funds , it would be an oversight to cast this off as a bubble . At Quartr , we have noticed a rapidly increasing number of companies mentioning ESG during their earnings calls and presentations , as they begin to factor widespread sustainability concerns into their investor relations strategy .”
Gray concludes : “ We need to move from an open banking environment to an open finance one instead , to provide consumers with greater visibility and control of all of their financial information – including pensions , investments , ISAs , and savings ’ data . This will help ensure that customers have complete transparency and control
“ OVER THE PAST DECADE , MANY INVESTMENT FIRMS HAVE MOVED CONSUMER-FACING OPERATIONS ONLINE ”
RICHARD DUFTY CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER , ARKOSE LABS
of their financial situation to improve decision making and planning for the future – particularly important as we head into uncertain economic times .”
“ We ’ re not there yet , but the future is promising . At Plaid , we ’ re working hard to make this open-finance future a reality .”