Prior to Fortu, Firdavs and I were both working in Private Banking and Wealth Management. Our daily responsibilities required substantial interaction with traditional private banks and their legacy formats and processes. Their outdated approach caused much frustration for us and our clients, especially when considering the concurrent innovation that had taken place in the retail banking sector.
As such, it wasn’t long before we were asking questions about innovation and the necessity for better technology within private banking. To those questions, we believe we have created the answer: Fortu.
Why did you launch it?
As it stands, millennials are due to inherit £50 trillion by 2030, and the current private banking market does not fit their needs. High net worth millennials need a new banking solution that provides the responsive and hassle-free UX that they get from the other technology in their lives.
There should be no reason for a banking app to not have the same (or better) user experience as say, Instagram or Twitter.
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What is Fortu’s USP?
If you have a look at some of the problems inhibiting the private banking industry Fortu plans to use innovative technology to streamline our user’s journey in a multitude of ways such as:
- The Onboarding process – Fortu offers a completely digital onboarding process that takes a few minutes as opposed to the legacy banks 96-page form.
- Foreign exchange rates – we’re able to offer live exchange rates, so Fortu customers and clients know that they’re getting the ‘actual’ rate when they access our platform and not a daily best guess. This is essential when HNWI’s and clients are moving and investing money in large quantities and at speed!
- A user-friendly banking solution – The current UX offerings from top banks has fallen behind the expectations of its clients. The process for investments and payments has become too labour-intensive, with endless forms, and confirmations. We aim to bypass this hassle by providing tech-friendly alternatives, like in-app DocuSign, that don’t sacrifice security. At Fortu we want to ensure that our clients are confident about their money, and so we are working on offering a personal banker to each of clients, available for questions to the client around the clock.
- Hidden fees – Many of the traditional banks and firms these days offer attractive fees on the surface but then attach add-on costs when the user wants to make use of their investment and exchange opportunities. At Fortu, we believe that transparency is key and so offer simple and clear fees in the shape of a monthly subscription-style fee for our premium account.
What does the future hold for Fortu?
As we continue to build out and improve our client’s experience, optimising all attributes of the app and our service, we are now looking to provide Fortu as a SaaS product for wealth management firms, banks, and other appropriate partners. We’re extremely excited to work with these clients to bring Fortu’s technically advanced platform to customers and improve their private banking experiences.