The Blackrock tale told in the UK : ETFs & Robo-advisors

By:DailyFintech.com

Homas Bata, the founder of Bata Shoe, was fond of telling the story of how he sent two salesmen to explore market potential in Africa. One cabled back to the home office: “No one here wears shoes. No potential.” The second salesman cabled: “Everyone here is barefoot. Infinite potential.”

https://dailyfintech.com/2016/06/13/the-blackrock-...

Blackrock, the i-shares founder, came to London to the first thematic conference, focused only on robo-investing and told the audience a similar tale. As Paolo Sironi highlights in his 60″ FinTech talk from Robo-Investing Europe 2016:

In the US 50% of ETF volume is from retail; whereas in Europe it is 5%.

Robo-advisors in Europe are lagging to the US in both numbers of Robo-advisor startups and in number of financial institutions adapting the technology. We can go on and on, with more facts showing Europe behind the US; Assets under management, Number of customers, ETFs vs. mutual funds etc.

Is Brexit referendum impairing our vision? Are we seeing the glass half empty? What is the market opportunity in robo-investing?

The UK “inventory” of robo-advisor Fintechs

There are 6 Fintechs in the B2B space, with white label offerings, or modules to build in a few weeks a tailored made solution, or to serve financial advisors.