“This will also help the tech providers establish their brand presence across the market.
“At the moment, I don’t think that small providers with low brand awareness will succeed without the backing of a larger brand.”
Nearly a third of large banks and asset managers expect to buy a financial technology firm in the next 18 months, according to a report compiled by law firm Simmons and Simmons in April.
Those findings came as the regulator’s director of strategy said greater use of robo-advice will address the Financial Conduct Authority’s concerns about advice charges.
Christopher Woolard was speaking in April after the FCA expressed concerns some consumers were not getting value for money when they paid for advice.
He said the FCA is encouraging greater use of robo-advice to make sure people can access advice at different costs.
However robo-advisers have some way to go to gain the trust of consumers.
Robo-advice is less popular than financial advisers, friends or even the internet, according to research published in May.
The fifth annual ING International Survey Mobile Banking 2017, which quizzed nearly 15,000 people across 15 countries, found nine in 10 Europeans would not let a robo-adviser manage and make decisions about their finances unilaterally.
laura.miller@ft.com
