The Quest for Resilience
Canadian Asset and Wealth Manager Survey 2020

RBC Investor & Treasury Services’ annual survey of Canadian asset and wealth managers, conducted in June 2020, reflects the perspectives of 101 managers from across the country.

Key takeaways

o Respondents are maintaining a positive outlook in the face of COVID-19 and ongoing market volatility

o Managers continue to focus on building resilient organizations as they look to improve efficiency through digitization and integration across their firms—efforts that were accelerated in response to the pandemic

o Data is increasingly important but price and quality are key considerations

o Interest in socially responsible investing remains lukewarm—at least for now

o Managers anticipate increased demand for cash during these recessionary times, while an expected shift to active investments may not achieve the desired results

o Working from home will endure but on-site working is unlikely to disappear

o Underlying clients are deemed to value transparency and efficiency more than low fees and high returns—a reversal, which likely reflects the current disruptive environment

Did you know?

$8.4M

Cost of a single data breach in Canada’s financial industry(1)

44%

Proportion of US CFOs planning to accelerate automation(2)

4.6B

# of people with internet access—59% of the world’s population(3)

39%

Proportion of Canadian workers teleworking at the end of March 2020(4)

  1. 1 IBM Security and Ponemon Institute, Cost of a Data Breach 2019
  2. 2 PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Pulse Survey, June 2020
  3. 3 Domo, Data Never Sleeps 8.0, August 2020
  4. 4 Statistics Canada, Running the Economy Remotely, May 28, 2020

Survey results

Positive outlook
4.1 / 5.0

View Results

Lukewarm interest in SRI
3.6 / 5.0

View Results

Market volatility
#1 challenge

View Results

Service, transparency and efficiency
Attributes most valued by underlying clients

View Results

Improving efficiency
#1 focus

View Results

Cash
Most popular asset class

View Results

Digitizing manual processes
#1 technology priority

View Results

Active investments
Most popular investment strategy

View Results

Quality and cost
Top data challenges

View Results

Working from home
Most lasting legacy of COVID-19

View Results

About the survey respondents

Type

About the survey respondents - Type

Location

About the survey respondents - Location

Size (by assets under management)

About the survey respondents - Size

Role

About the survey respondents - Role
  1. * Including in-house and third-party managers
  2. ** Including relationship management and technology

About RBC Investor & Treasury Services

RBC Investor & Treasury Services is a specialist provider of asset services, custody, payments and treasury services for financial and other institutional investors worldwide, with over 4,500 employees in 16 countries across North America, Europe and Asia. We deliver services to safeguard client assets, underpinned by client-centric digital solutions that continue to be enhanced and evolved in line with our clients’ changing needs. Trusted with $4.5 trillion in client assets under administration,(1) RBC Investor & Treasury Services is a financially strong partner with among the highest credit ratings globally.(2)

  1. 1 Royal Bank of Canada quarterly results released July 31, 2020
  2. 2 Standard & Poor’s (AA-) and Moody’s (Aa2) legacy senior long-term debt ratings of Royal Bank of Canada as of August 25, 2020

CONTACT US

David J. Giannone
Global Head of Business Development
david.giannone@rbc.com

Throughout this report, currencies are in Canadian dollars and percentages show proportion of choices unless otherwise indicated

© Copyright Royal Bank of Canada 2020. RBC Investor & Treasury Services™ is a global brand name and is part of Royal Bank of Canada. RBC Investor & Treasury Services operates primarily through the following companies: Royal Bank of Canada, RBC Investor Services Trust and RBC Investor Services Bank S.A., and their branches and affiliates. This document is provided for general information only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal or accounting advice, and should not be relied upon in that regard. RBC Investor & Treasury Services makes no representation or warranty of any kind regarding the accuracy or completeness of any information contained or referred to in this document. To the full extent permitted by law, neither RBC Investor & Treasury Services nor any of its affiliates or any other person accepts any liability whatsoever for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage arising from any use of the information contained herein by the recipient or any third party. Links to external websites are for convenience only. RBC Investor & Treasury Services does not review, endorse, approve, control or accept any responsibility for the content of those sites. Linking to external websites is at your own risk. ® / ™ Trademarks of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under licence.

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