French telecommunications firm Orange Business Services has entered into partnership with Zurich-headquartered digital financial solutions firm Additiv to provide wealth management 'as-a-service' solutions to financial institutions.

The partnership combines Additiv's Financial Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Orange Business Services' Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) to provide DFaaS or Digital Finance-as-a-Service.

The result is that financial institutions will have access to cloud-based solutions that are designed to automate wealth management.

These solutions are offered on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis and rolled out via dedicated Orange cloud platforms.

In a joint statement, the companies explain that the SaaS products are based on Additiv's fourth generation modular Digital Finance Suite (DFS 4.0) "designed for the digitalisation of new and exsiting business segments."

They also feature out-of-the-box offerings including robo advisors, client and advisory dashboards and portfolio management solutions.

Financial institutions focus

The companies are targeting financial institutions primarily to help them to reduce operating costs and host data off-premise in the cloud, but onshore in the country of origin.

This will require strong integration and delivery capabilities, which, along with a global footprint, was a prerequisite for Additiv in scouting for a potential European service provider partner.

Orange Business Service has convinced Additiv of its cloud, data storage, connectivity and cyber defense capabilities at global level to help address these requirements.

According to management at the multinational tech firm, there was a clear fit because its Orange Money and Orange Cash offerings are Business-to-Consumer in design, whereas digital wealth management is a clear Business-to-Business solution.

Phillipp Ringgenberg, Director of business and solutions consulting, Europe, Orange Business Services said the transformation and adoption of the African market is more advanced than other regions and banking clients are used to conducting business across digital platforms because Africa has less bank affiliates than global counterparts.

Ringgenberg said, "First, we engage with banks and insurance companies. After, we will open the suite to other financial services, such as family offices, asset managers, etc. Completely automated wealth management platforms and remote maintenance make the solutions cheaper and therefore wealth management services are more accessible to companies/people who have not previously been customers. With this product, banks open a new market below the high/super-high wealth, and they can enter the mid (mass) market since the costs are dramatically lowered due to the automated processes."

Michael Stemmle, founder and CEO of Additiv said, "By partnering with Orange Business Services we can provide financial institutions with a fast and highly-secure way of tapping into this new market opportunity, while improving the end-client experience and reducing operating costs. Through the joint platform, customers have access to Additiv's Digital Finance Suite, including its global ecosystem partners, such as Saxo Bank that offers client administration, execution and custody services with access to 35,000 financial instruments across eight asset classes."

Martin Kull, managing director, Orange Business Services Switzerland and sponsor of the Additiv partnership, said, "Financial institutions are poised to benefit from this unique offering that combines for the first time the strength of a global service provider with the leading edge finance suite of Additiv. Orange has listened to the emerging customer demands in the financial industry and has fulfilled local regulatory obligations. Together this boosts both companies' capabilities, offerings and services on a global scale and provides the financial industry with new digital services for their differentiation."

Orange Group launched Orange Money in 2008 and in 2017 Orange Bank was launched in France.