Ep 63: From Pipes to Platforms:

Annabel Spring of Allfunds on the Future of Wealth

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What really sits behind the booming world of global wealth? In this episode of Money Majlis, Suvo Sarkar sits down with Annabel Spring, Global CEO of Allfunds, to unpack the invisible infrastructure that now powers how trillions of dollars move across borders, banks and platforms.

From Hong Kong to Dubai to Dublin, a growing share of the world’s mutual funds, ETFs and alternatives are being manufactured in one place, distributed in another, and serviced on technology stacks most investors never see. Annabel runs one of the world’s largest B2B wealthtech ecosystems, connecting more than three thousand fund groups and asset managers to hundreds of banks, private banks and wealth managers across sixty-plus markets, with close to 1.8 trillion euros in assets running through the pipes.

Drawing on three decades at Morgan Stanley, Commonwealth Bank of Australia and HSBC, she explains how the old linear chain of manufacturer-distributor-client has morphed into a dense web of platforms, data pipes and service layers, all supposedly centred on the end investor. Suvo and Annabel explore where the real frictions still lie, from cross-border onboarding and KYC to legacy systems and fragmented data, and how platforms like Allfunds decide what to build, what to partner on and what to leave to others. They dive into the surge in private markets for wealth clients, why access is no longer the main barrier, and how education, liquidity design and secondary markets will determine whether alternatives truly go mainstream.

The conversation covers AI, tokenisation and the “boring plumbing” that actually changes economics. Annabel separates genuine operating-model transformation from AI-washing, and describes how Allfunds is using data, analytics and blockchain rails to move from being a transaction pipe to a full-scale digital ecosystem. She also lifts the lid on the strategic logic behind the planned combination with Deutsche Börse’s Clearstream fund services and reflects on the legacy of Allfunds’ late founder, Juan Alcaraz.

Finally, from the rise of Asia and the Middle East as enduring wealth hubs to the blurring lines between private banking, mass affluent and institutional segments, Annabel shares a candid, practitioner’s view of what global wealth will look like in 2035 - and what leaders need to get right now to still matter then.

Produced by : Poddster
Giving partner : Goodworld

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