Source: Fidelity National Financial
Fidelity Investments®'clearing and custody company, National Financial, today announced a new myStreetscape portal, mobile capabilities and investor statements for investors who work with brokers on the Streetscape® platform.
The new investor-centric enhancements were built from the ground up for today's more actively engaged investor and designed to foster communication and collaboration between brokers and their customers. This is critical as research indicates that investors want to be more involved in their own investment process1. The investor enhancements deliver on National Financial's multi-year strategy to deploy the industry's most advanced technology platforms for brokers and investors.
Leveraging advanced features from Fidelity's retail brokerage platform, the new tools and resources -- which include portfolio summary and positions pages, streaming market data and research available both on the Web and through mobile apps -- provide direct, on-demand access for investors. The new statements help to engage investors by creating clearer, more concise overviews of key account information.
"We are implementing the next phase of our technology strategy to deliver innovations for today's investors and their brokers," said Richard N. Hart III, senior vice president, Platform Solutions, National Financial. "The new suite of technology enhancements will facilitate more collaboration between investors and their brokers. The enhancements also will help brokers increase productivity and efficiency by enabling them to spend more time building their businesses and less time on administrative tasks."
A More Mobile Investor
In addition to finding that investors want to be more engaged with their investments, a recent report published by Forrester Research found that investors are increasingly using their mobile devices to stay connected to their portfolios. Eleven percent of online adults with investment accounts are now mobile investors, up more than 37 percent from the previous six months. Of these mobile investors, two-thirds use their devices to check investment account balances, half get stock quotes or other market information via mobile, and one-quarter are mobile traders.ile traders.2
The new mobile capabilities added to myStreetscape will help brokers better align with today's more technology-minded investors and serve them more efficiently.
"By placing more control in the hands of investors via the new myStreetscape -- particularly through the mobile capabilities -- we are able to create a more satisfying user experience for our investors, which ultimately will help deepen our relationships," said Steven Short, chief executive officer, UnionBanc Investment Services.
Enhancements Reflect Investors' Increasing Demand for More Involvement and Mobility
Specifically focused on the needs of brokers and their customers, the enhancements integrated into National Financial's new myStreetscape® portal include:
Improved Design and Navigation ─ The platform is customizable for the investor's preferences and also customizable for the broker-dealer firm, which can add its own branding.
New Mobile Offering ─ Leveraging functionality from Fidelity.com, the new myStreetscape mobile capability enables users to access their online brokerage accounts to view positions, balances and transaction history. The offering includes three smartphone options including a myStreetscape app, available now on the App Store3. Broker-dealer clients will be able to incorporate their firms' own private branding on the mobile applications.
Customizable Positions Page ─ The positions page now enables users to reposition columns and customize screens to show the most important data elements without scrolling. Users also can click the column headers for easy sorting and expand or collapse any of the security type groupings.
Markets and Research Overview ─ The markets and research page now offers a five-day economic and "world view" calendar, which displays all major world markets and news, macro-level research reports, detailed company profile reports, access to earnings and ownership.
IDC Market-Q ─ Powered by IDC, Market-Q provides streaming quotes, news, advanced charting capabilities and analytics. With no software to download, Market-Q is a pure browser based solution that is both sophisticated and flexible.
In-Depth Investment Screeners ─ The upgraded myStreetscape offers more robust stock, ETF and mutual fund screeners.
"Putting these tools in the hands of our customers empowers our brokers to be more efficient and productive," said Wilson Williams, president and CEO of the Williams Financial Group. "In addition, this advanced technology helps position us as a more progressive firm, which helps to maintain our competitive edge."
First Slate of Innovations to Streetscape Broker Workstation Fully Implemented
Earlier this year, National Financial unveiled its multi-year technology investment strategy, designed to increase broker productivity, drive investor satisfaction and collaboration, and make the home offices more efficient by automating workflows and providing superior compliance tools.
The first round of deliverables to the Streetscape Broker Workstation -- including improved design and navigation, conditional order and trailing stops and expanded market data and research -- have now been fully implemented with the company's broker-dealer clients.
"As part of our ongoing commitment to help our clients grow and succeed, we are developing and deploying the most sophisticated technologies and tools in order to meet our goal of providing the best platform in the industry," said Hart.