Curmi & Partners is this week celebrating the launch of “Curmi Digital Wealth”, its new data-rich platform to allow its clients to access their investments “24/7”.

Adhering to international standards of reporting, the new platform will be an intuitive platform that is “interactive” and “engaging”, according to CEO David Curmi.

“Besides transforming the way we work, it will change the quality and timeliness of the information we provide to our clients”, he added. Curmi & Partners has already moved to a full digital reporting level, but the new platform is particularly notable because it is “a fully automated digital platform” that allows clients to follow their investment portfolio on a “24/7” basis.

It combines mart graphical displays with critical data, enabling them to understand their investments better and analyse them from different perspectives “at the touch of a button”, Mr Curmi said.

“Whether viewing from an IOS device or an Android one, clients also benefit from downloading their reports to their devices or storing them within the platform itself”, he added.

Reflecting on the events preceding the launch, Mr Curmi explained: “The last 12 months have been a real wake-up call on many fronts and have proffered certain vital lessons to the world”.

Firstly, he said, the year showed us that we "should not take our health for granted. Once this is gone, it is difficult to get back.

“Secondly, those rainy days are a reality and financial planning needs to take priority. No matter how secure your job or income may be, there is always something around the corner that could potentially knock the wind out of you. Having prepared for a rainy day helps cushion this potential blow.

“Thirdly, we have learnt that digital technology is now mainstream. Yes, we are still human, and we instinctively crave face to face contact, but technology, used appropriately can be a helpful tool for almost every age cohort. It is impressive to notice how quickly technology is adopted when seen as an urgent need for an immediate solution”.

Curmi & Partners has experienced these changes at “very close quarters over the past year”, but it first started overhauling its IT infrastructure (from both the hardware and software sides) several years ago.

“The objective back then was to change the way we communicate and what we communicate to our clients”, Mr Curmi reflects.

“To do this, we needed to completely start building our infrastructure from scratch in such a way that we would be able to give clients the visibility that we felt they ought to have. It’s not that the system we had then was inadequate for what we were providing, far from it. It still was probably one of the most advanced portfolio management systems on the island.”

Despite the successes of this, “it became clear that it could not grow in the same way that [Curmi & Partners] wanted” and to fit “the complexity the market would eventually require”.

Instead, the firm identified that its future was one where it needed to be more efficient in its processes, which meant a much greater degree of automation throughout.

It would need to bring together both the portfolio management and regulatory sides of its business and more importantly it needed to help the firm get closer to its clients by giving them access to "what is essentially their data", “at the push of a button”.

Mr Curmi acknowledged that the journey to achieve these objectives was not simple: “When changing software platforms, there are always hidden gremlins that surface when you least expect them to. Yet by staying focused on the bigger picture, we soldiered on”.

The journey into the digital world has already proven to be critical to Curmi & Partners’ ability to navigate successfully through the pandemic, the CEO explains.

“It is difficult to imagine how we would have survived as well as we did without such automation. And the exciting aspect is that the more you invest in your processes, the more you realise what you can do and that the possibilities truly become endless.

“We now have a project team that is continuously focussing on what added features we can develop to be more relevant to our clients and to keep us closer to them at all times. The interesting angle is seeing how a broad range of age groups are embracing the technologies we are providing them with whilst also giving us feedback on adding new features”.

Mr Curmi understands that over time, technology will keep evolving, with more features to be included over time. However, his firm believes that the need to balance technology with a human interface remains vital, and maintains it does not wish to lose this.

“Whilst automation is inevitable and desirable, picking up the phone or communicating with another human being is just as critical”.

“To us, being successful in this respect does not stop at introducing technology into everything that we do, but it is about combining it with our amazing team to be able to offer a service that can be entirely digital for the more tech-savvy yet still traditional for those less so”, Mr Curmi added.

“I look forward to continuing this journey and strengthening the precious achievements obtained so far”, he concluded.

Interested readers can find out more on Curmi & Partners' website.