Institutional investors rely on digital platforms for capital investment

Institutional investors are increasingly relying on digital platforms for their capital investments: Almost half of them use platforms for their acquisition. More than one in five investors extends loans online. This is the result of a study conducted by the FinTech Loanboox in cooperation with the TUM School of Management at the University of Munich.

Around 50 insurance companies, statutory health insurance funds, pension funds and asset managers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland took part in the study. More than half of the respondents manage assets of more than 3 billion euros.
One focus of the study was the question of the respective investment strategy. Among other things, the study examined which asset classes are invested in, which influencing factors underlie the investment decisions and to what extent digital applications play a role in capital investment.

Corporate is most important asset class for institutional investors

When asked about the importance of various asset classes, corporates stand out as the most important form. 84 percent of all study participants rate them as (rather) important. With regard to the asset classes near public sector (NPS), real estate and infrastructure, no tendency can be observed with regard to a uniform rating of relevance. If one compares the response behaviour of investors from the regions of Switzerland and Germany/Austria, however, it is noticeable that Swiss investors have a different attitude towards the NPS area. Thus, 71 percent of the Swiss consider the asset class NPS to be (rather) important, whereas only 36 percent of the two countries from the Eurozone do.

When making investment decisions, investors are primarily guided by the criteria of return (82%), rating (77%), maturity (74%) and liquidity (72%). On the other hand, the criteria of intended use and experience with customers generally play a subordinate role. Only pension funds consider the latter criterion to be more relevant.

Platform competence is higher in Switzerland than in Germany

In acquisition activities, analogue “channels” are now increasingly being replaced by digital ones. The majority of respondents (70%) prefer emails. The second most frequently mentioned channel is the telephone (65%). This is already followed by digital platforms, which are used as an acquisition channel by 43% of the participants. Personal conversations as well as contacting financial advisors play a subordinate role with 19 percent, as does the fax, which is only used by one study participant.

Digital applications are also increasingly being used for lending. Two out of ten investors already grant loans via digital platforms. However, there are strong country-specific differences here. While two-thirds of all investors surveyed in Switzerland use platforms to grant loans, in Germany/Austria this figure is only around 11 percent. One possible reason could be a lack of familiarity with the use of such platforms. In Germany/Austria, 45 percent of respondents are (rather) unfamiliar with the use of digital platforms, in Switzerland it is only 29 percent.

In contrast, the question as to which features of digital platforms are considered most relevant is answered uniformly across all countries. Market transparency is seen as a (rather) important aspect by 77 percent of all respondents. None of them rated this point as (rather) unimportant. The possibility of saving time is described as a (rather) important feature by 66 percent of the participants. Only just under 6 percent of the participants rate the time saving as a less relevant factor.

Here you can download a PDF der Pressemitteilung of the press release.