Financial market data and infrastructure global provider Refinitiv, announced appointing Charles Smith as head of Digital Solutions, Wealth Management. Smith will lead Refinitiv’s global digital wealth management solutions and oversee its strategic direction and impact. The role focuses on building and enhancing the company’s digital and mobile distribution, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities.
The appointment comes at a time when wealth management companies and advisors have to adjust to the global circumstances of Covid-19 and that the financial services industry will depend more on digital solutions.
Joseph Mrak, global head of Wealth Management, Refinitiv, commented:
As the world around us shifts to remote work, Refinitiv remains evermore committed to providing customers with the transformative digital solutions and insight needed to succeed. As our customers adjust to increased digital client demands, our systems are there to support such efforts accordingly. For instance, our brokerage transactions and operations service, BETA Systems, has been processing record transactions per day: up 129% on average for the month of March. This record surpasses February as the previously recorded highest month for BETA.
Mrak continued:
We welcome Charles to Refinitiv during this unprecedented period of need. His industry experience will help us to provide our customers with the future-focused insight and solutions needed to navigate today’s rapidly changing wealth management industry.
The company’s wealth management business supports a significant number of customers by providing global, regional and emerging market wealth platforms in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. The wealth management industry has been impacted considerably with fintech companies delivering new perspectives to investors. Refinitiv has invested in expansion of its wealth offering.
Charles Smith stated:
I am excited to join Refinitiv at an important moment in the transformation of the wealth management industry. As new technologies evolve to enhance the way wealth clients and financial advisors interact, we plan to be at the forefront of that change, and I am looking forward to assisting our wealth management customers in meeting the rapidly evolving digital needs of today and tomorrow.
Before his new appointment at Refinitiv, Smith was managing director EY’s Wealth and Asset Management practice for eight years. There he worked with some of the top 10 US financial services institutions on key wealth management fields including product strategy, client and advisor experience design and development, retirement, operating model development, process improvement, platform implementation and service delivery strategy. Before that Smith occupied a senior leadership position at Fiserv/CheckFree, Misys (now Finastra) and Thomson Financial (now Refinitiv). He was head of product management & marketing teams and has managed relationship management teams with focus on working with C-level executives. Smith also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and AB in economics from Dartmouth College.
Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
