AIAM Singapore’s President Philipp Piaz Gives Rallying Call to the Independents

Philipp Piaz, President of the Association of Independent Asset Managers Singapore, gave a keynote address at the Hubbis Independent Wealth Management Forum in Singapore to update delegates on the latest developments affecting the private wealth management market. He ran through the key developments in 2018 and anticipated how AIAM will help independent firms in 2019 and beyond. He urged members to become even more involved and exhorted the non-members amongst the event delegates to reach out to the AIAM.

Piaz highlighted six key areas in which the AIAM had offered help to its members in 2018. First, he pointed to the very well-attended quarterly networking event where associate members and ordinary members gather and exchange information, exchange insights on their challenges, experiences, frustrations, and hopes.

He highlighted professional development talks where AIAM invites industry experts to exchange information and share their views.

He spoke of the very successful compliance workshops where AIAM assembles a team of specialists, be that legal or compliance professionals to guide members through whatever the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has introduced in terms of new or planned regulations. “As this affects all of us so profoundly,” he commented, “these events are always very well attended and also welcomed by CEOs as well as COOs and compliance officers of our member firms.”

He also pointed to theme presentations by AIAM associate members who are given an arena to showcase funds, to present trends, to explain new technologies, highlighting products or services of whatever firms they represent.

Bringing members knowledge

And we also have industry conferences like today’s which the AIAM is very happy to sponsor,” he reported, “as we can mix with our pool of members and add content as well as speakers, as you will see throughout the day.”

Finally, but far from least important, Piaz noted that very active ongoing dialogue with the regulator, the MAS. “We have closed-door meetings,” he explained, “we are kept abreast of what their intentions are in the near, medium, and longer-term future. They are pleased to share with us where the regulatory environment is heading. Obviously, their guidelines, white papers, and so forth they share with everybody, but it is excellent to see that the MAS takes us very seriously and maintains its dialogue with us as an association, for our cause.”

Growing membership

He moved on to the memberships, noting that there are currently 40 ordinary members representing independent and external asset management firms in Singapore.  “We have a variety of members from very classic, old school asset management across to more tech-oriented firms that even offer some of the latest tech such as robo-advisory. And we have an equally wide array of associate members cover all sorts of industries that help or support our industry with either custodian service, brokerage service, research, technology, trust business, or legal support. In total that is 81 members, a tremendous success given we only started seven years ago.”

He then briefly also covered the new committee formation, before focusing the talk back on his key priorities for 2019. 

Missions for 2019

His first mission is to further enhance compliance support. “It is a massive task for smaller firms to stay abreast of these ever-changing rules and regulations we all face,” he remarked. “We have an excellent support network, be that from our internal support, or compliance support for the committee by Duff & Phelps as well as Tan Woon Hum from law firm Shook Lin & Bok. We are happy for you to contact the compliance support centre, we pay for it, it is for your own benefit.”

Secondly, AIAM wants to encourage closer collaboration between the ordinary members and associate members. “We must make use of that tremendous pool of talent and experience we all have,” he stated. “We have a wealth of experience to draw upon. Please reach out to us and to fellow members and encourage other people who have not yet joined to attend our events.”

And finally, AIAM will be conducting at least two very specialised workshops in 2019 focused on new trends in fund management, new trends on the regulatory front, and on new technologies. We aim to conduct these twice in 2019, This will be an initiative twice this year which Edwin and his team will be preparing for all of us.

Flying the independent flag

In summary, Piaz exhorted the delegates to become more involved with the AIAM in order to ahead of the curve with developments, not only in the investment space but also on the regulatory front, technology front, and in other areas. He advised attendees to leverage their skills through networking and events. Thirdly, he expressed his hopes that delegates at the Hubbis event would use the AIAM to help their businesses. “We are all part of what you are doing,” he said. “We have come a really long way in the past seven years, and I am very proud to say that we have a fantastic team going forward as well.”