Robo-adviser Six Park launches with Brian Watson, Lindsay Tanner and Paul Costello on Advisory Board
Australia’s pre-eminent financial experts have joined the next generation of automated financial advice providers with the launch of robo-adviser Six Park. Six Park’s team includes former Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, founding chief of the Future Fund Paul Costello and Six Park co-founder and former J.P. Morgan Australia Chairman Brian Watson on the company’s Advisory Board. Six Park has raised $1.4 million in seed funding pre-launch and combines the use of cutting edge technology with more than 100 years of investment expertise and wisdom led by co-founders Patrick Garrett (CEO) and Mr Watson (Chairman of Advisory Board). Independently-owned and operating in beta-mode for over a year to […]
Big banks face big risk of losing customers
Australia’s big banks face a huge risk of losing their most valuable customers to their fintech rivals, new research has shown. According to an analysis conducted by Centre for Social Economics and Roy Morgan Research, the big bank customers most likely to churn, instead turning to tech-savvy fintech providers, are their “most valuable customers”. The fintech phenomenon, according to Roy Morgan, taps into a new consumer mindset – called the Desire Economy – where 64% would prefer never to go into a traditional bank branch. Ever again. Consumers in the Desire Economy are younger, well educated, tech-adopting, urban dwellers. Forty percent are early adopters of technology compared to only 5% […]
Craig Steven Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto – Maybe, the Leader of the Team
Have you already bought into the idea of Craig Steven Wright being Satoshi Nakamoto? There is a growing voice saying not so fast! Indeed, the shadow of doubt is growing every passing moment as members of the Bitcoin community pour over the evidence that he has put on the table. This can be witnessed on various Bitcoin forums, such as the Bitcoin subReddit, where some enthusiasts are expressing their disbelief. They could be wrong. They could right. Who knows at this point? Andreas M. Antonopoulos is one of those who have come out to question the validity of Craig Steven Wright’s claims. The author of Mastering Bitcoin, a Bitcoin security […]
OpenMarkets adds XPLAN integration in major expansion of its third-party network
OpenMarkets clients can now enjoy full integration with financial planning software XPLAN, as Australia’s independent technology stockbroker takes another step towards becoming the sector’s most connected broker. The integration allows advisers trading through OpenMarkets the ability to access client transactions and holding information directly from XPLAN, removing the hassle of keying in the data themselves. OpenMarkets sees the integration as a natural step in broadening the company’s offering to independent advisers, and is part of its overall drive to expand its third-party network and bring greater efficiency to users. OpenMarkets CEO Rick Klink said, “The development with XPLAN is a natural evolution for OpenMarkets, as we continue to gain market […]
Fintech to launch ‘lite’ money management tool
Moneysoft — a revamped version of a leading PMF tool — will be launched for financial advisers, mortgage brokers and superannuation funds next quarter. Moneysoft Lite has been developed to support advisers who are implementing cashflow management systems by providing client engagement tools. Moneysoft head of operations, Jon Shaw, said that the development of Moneysoft Lite would include new and enhanced functionality available in the flagship cloud-based Moneysoft solution. Set to include an intuitive interface to guide users, automated account balances, bespoke report delivery and share data control, the PMF will customise how clients can benefit from cashflow-based advice. “Moneysoft Lite will help advisers capitalise on the mounting interest in […]
Sydney Stock Exchange’s blockchain system targets venture capital funds, commodities
Two-year-old Sydney Stock Exchange is building a blockchain settlement system to avoid high ASX fees and build a market for venture capital funds to exit their investments and commodities markets. The distributed ledger will initially only be used to settle trades in private companies, but once regulatory approval is gained, it will settle trades in publicly listed stocks. SSX will promote the new settlement system as a low cost alternative to the ASX to try to attract private equity funds to exit their investments by listing on the SSX. Settlement instantaneous Once complete in early 2018, SSX hopes to sell versions of its system – which is being built with […]
Blockchain is here to stay
Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin, is the talk of the town at the moment. The financial services industry can’t get enough of it. The enthusiasm essentially boils down to the technology’s potential to reduce the financial transaction costs while ensuring robust security. While Bitcoin is unlikely to be make traditional currency extinct, blockchain has provided the impetus needed for new and innovative research into how the slow and often expensive centralised financial transaction systems that dominate banking, so what is this blockchain? Put simply, blockchain is a data structure that can be used to create digital ledgers of transactions shared among a distributed network of participating organisations. Financial institutions […]
Need to Know: Practical Bitcoin basics
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the phrase Bitcoin uttered around tech circles, or maybe even on mainstream news outlets. Maybe you’ve seen Bitcoin as a payment option on stores like Steam and Microsoft’s. But what is Bitcoin, why should you care and is it worth bothering with? As to what Bitcoin is, simply put, it’s way of transferring money around. Some people think it’s a challenge to government reserve banks (probably not) or a whole new system of finance technology akin to the credit card (quite likely), but for us plebs, right now, it’s main utility is cheaply and quickly sending money from A to […]
