Novia Financial

Patrick Mill, chief executive officer at Novia Financial

What did your company do to earn the five-star award this year in your category?

• Introduced secure digital verification, enabling biometric verification of bank details on a smart phone.
• Streamlined processes such as making withdrawals, changing how we accept instructions, so forms that previously required a signature could be sent via secure messaging. More processes moved online: amending of adviser charges, addition and amending of bank details for regular withdrawals, one simple online journey to allow money to be transferred from a GIA to an ISA.
• Deployed multi-factor authentication, allowing an extra layer of security at login, using a code generated on an app running on a mobile device.
• Error rates for this year to date low at just 0.09 per cent.
• 89 per cent of calls answered and 80 per cent of emails answered the same day.
• Less than 10 days in the whole year where our turnaround times exceeded five business days.
• Enhancements to the CGT calculator – the new ‘scenario planner’ functionality was enhanced to allow advisers to check scenarios before making any sale requests.
• Deployed useful and time-saving enhancements to our secure messaging service such as message IDs, delivery receipts, pre-populated fields and searchable drop-downs. 
• Continually kept users informed with updates, including many clear and useful video guides on processes and enhancements.

Why did you enhance service to advisers and what do you plan to do next year?

Recent times have shown the importance of being able to support remote ways of working.  At Novia we responded instantly to this by making it simpler to submit instructions that were not already part of the online journey. Going beyond e-signatures, we created signatureless forms and a trusted submission method via secure email.

In response to increased client vulnerability and heightened fraud activity, we have also added extra layers of security with options such as secure digital verification and multi-factor authentication.

Innovation is in our DNA and we plan to continue to make life easier for users in the future.

What have you done to improve service over the past 12 months?

In 2020 we accelerated our schedule of enhancements to improve the experience of our users to help adviser businesses continue to grow even in lockdown, and in 2021 we have continued at this accelerated pace. For example, we introduced secure digital verification, enabling biometric verification of bank details on a smart phone. We streamlined processes such as making withdrawals, changing how we accept instructions, so many forms that previously required a signature could be sent via secure messaging.

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?

The pandemic brought many challenges. Most of our teams were moved to home working within 24 hours. Using internet enabled telephones and laptops to provide support, we were able to provide a seamless continuation of service. We focussed on keeping our users informed, modifying processes and ensuring our staff were safe and well-equipped for the time ahead. Feedback from our users over the last year indicates that many see us as having stood out during the difficult period of the pandemic by the way that we quickly and smoothly adapted our working practises and made our processes easier.

What kind of investment does good service need?

To provide a good service, ongoing improvement is essential. This requires a major investment of time and money. We have a long history of investing in technology and our recent purchase by AnaCap brings increased investment. 

Providing a good service requires knowing what the wants and needs of your customers are and then finding innovative and effect ways to meet them. This requires being in a position to adapt and make changes swiftly. Our move to the in-house developed user interface Adviser Zone has enabled us to do this.  As part of our program of ongoing development, we have been holding sessions with adviser firms before, during and after development to make sure needs are met.

What do you plan to do for 2021-22?

Our hard work and commitment culminated in Novia being purchased by private equity firm AnaCap in April this year. This begins an exciting new chapter for Novia and reflects AnaCap’s confidence in the successful business that we have built over the years. This extra investment will allow us to develop at an increased pace and broaden our reach to help more and more advisers use the Novia platform. We’re proud to be part of the west-country fintech powerhouse and look forward to a period of increased growth and development.

What does good service mean to you?

For Novia, everything we do is about service. Good service means making life easier for advisers in a way that optimises the service that they in turn can provide to end investors. It means making available a comprehensive range of assets and tools through a user-friendly portal and supporting advisers in a swift and helpful way where required. It means listening to advisers to understand their needs, and enhancing processes in accordance with those needs, while also keeping them informed about those changes, providing clear and informative updates, training sessions, materials and responses to queries.