As it acknowledges signs of rising technological adoption and innovation among its clients, Fidelity is offering advisory firms, broker-dealers and fintechs an array of new tools to help them build and customize their technology.
Fidelity announced today that is expanding its Integration Xchange open-architecture digital store with new functions, support and updated integrations with AdvisorEngine, Black Diamond, Redtail, Orion, Riskalyze and BlackRock’s Advisor Center.
The Integration Xchange, at heart, offers advisors and broker-dealers and fintech firms a universe of integrations with over 200 third-party technology providers via APIs that they can use to customize their technology stacks, said Lisa Burns, head of platform technology at Fidelity Institutional.
While Fidelity does offer an all-in-one solution, WealthScape, most of its client firms also choose to work with third-party technology providers. In the recent 2020 Fidelity Financial Advisor Community COVID Series -- Technology Study of more than 300 advisors, more than half of the respondents reported working with at least 6 third-party fintech firms, and 94% of the respondents felt like the number of technology providers they worked with will increase or remain the same over the next five years.
Over 90% of Fidelity’s clients use at least one of its third-party integrated vendors, said Burns.
“We’ve recognized that for our clients, there’s not one single solution that meets all their needs, we need to make sure we have choice and flexibility,” said Burns. “Across the marketplace, we’re seeing that the integration of solutions is the winning solution for advisors in lieu of the all-in-one tech solution.”
Companies like Fidelity also realize that with the diversity of their institutional clients, there isn’t really a “single solution” that would meet all of their needs, said Burns, so they have to offer both choice and flexibility to advisory firms and broker-dealers.
The updates to the Integration Xchange include smart API filtering to allow users to more easily navigate Fidelity’s API inventory based on their business needs and the type of API being offered.
Advisors and tech developers will also have access to additional functions to manage integrations, like the ability to view fintech transmission rules within the Integration Xchange. Additional APIs have been added to the store’s “Try It Out” feature that allows firms to test-drive integration prototypes before moving forward with a full build.
“Advisors and third-party vendors want to understand the inventory of services available to them, and then they want to test those services out,” said Burns.