BGL announces an industry first integration with Smarter SMSF
BGL Corporate Solutions, Australia’s leading supplier of SMSF administration and ASIC corporate compliance solutions, is proud to announce an industry first integration with Smarter SMSF – allowing CAS 360 and Simple Fund 360 clients to purchase Smarter SMSF documents from within their BGL software. “We’re thrilled to launch this new service with Smarter SMSF”, says Ron Lesh, BGL’s Managing Director. “Smarter SMSF has been part of our Ecosystem for a long time. The new service provides BGL clients the ability to subscribe with Smarter SMSF for a document bundle based on their needs. These documents are tightly integrated into both CAS 360 and Simple Fund 360. “This seamless document integration […]
Novatti joins IBM World Wire network as a foundation member
Novatti Group Limited (ASX: NOV) announces it will join IBM Blockchain World Wire1, a real-time global payments network for regulated financial institutions such as Novatti’s subsidiary Flexewallet Pty Ltd. IBM World Wire is designed to optimize and accelerate foreign exchange and remittance services through a New Cross-Border Payments Network Supporting Real Time Payments and Foreign Exchange on the Stellar Protocol. By connecting to the World Wire network, Novatti now has access to a single unified network for foreign exchange and cross-border payments clearing and settlement built on blockchain technology and the Stellar public protocol. This will allow Novatti to offer clients the ability to conduct transactions across additional currencies and […]
Westpac abandons financial advice
Westpac will get out of the troubled personal advice sector and two of its top executives will depart the bank as it joins its big-four rivals in abandoning the once-dominant model of vertical integration. The bank announced on Tuesday it would exit the high-cost, loss-making business, producing $280 million in savings by 2020. Westpac group executives George Frazis and Brad Cooper will leave the bank as part of the changes. Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer said most customers did not differentiate between banking and wealth products and just wanted help to buy a home or plan for retirement. “We’re realigning our capabilities into the lines of business where it makes […]
Aussie ETF industry breaks another record
Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have continued on their growth trajectory as the Australian ETF industry broke new records last month, with a monthly funds under management (FUM) increase of $2.3 billion, BetaShares’ February Australian ETF Review has said. This figure eclipsed the previous record set in November 2017, and the industry now stands at $44.8 billion. “Similar to January, market rebounds meant that the substantial industry growth primarily came from price increases, accounting for 80 per cent of the total, with the other 20 per cent due to net inflows amounting to $524 million,” the report said. According to BetaShares, investor appetite for global exposures continued to grow, with international equities […]
Use apps to target young investors: GlobalData
Utilizing technology to provide simple, easy-to-use, and accessible apps is paramount to appeal to young investors, according to data and analytics company GlobalData. GlobalData’s ‘2018 Mass Affluent Investors Survey’ found that 53.3 per cent of mass affluent investors between the ages of 18–34 agree they are easily flustered when things are complicated. The company sees this as proof that products should be kept simple in order to reach the young mass affluent population and encourage them to begin investing. “It is important to remember that while these apps may seem easy to use to the well-informed, tech-savvy crowd, it is just as important to ensure the same is true for […]
How Lakeba Group uses AI to identify business opportunities – and when it lets humans take over
Rather than picking a single problem and solving it, Australian technology company Lakeba Group is hedging its bets, using AI to unearth a range of business opportunities, commercialising the underlying technology components as well as applying it to industry-specific use cases. So far the Manly-based company has identified seven commercial ventures, including the Shelfie, a joint venture with Microsoft, and Paid By Coins, a payment service that lets users pay their bills with cryptocurrencies, which Mobecom recently acquired a 80 per cent stake in for $6 million. Giuseppe Porcelli, Lakeba Group CEO, spoke to Which-50 about how the company approaches innovation and commercialising its ideas. Lakeba Group’s neural network is […]
Splitit: why this payments company is dividing the market
The last time fund manager Dean Fergie’s cycling buddies had such a specific interest in the financial markets was during the bitcoin boom. “Two years ago, everyone was going, hey, what about bitcoin. Now it’s about Splitit – it’s the stock everyone is talking about,” says the Melbourne-based Cyan Investment Management director whose fund bought shares in the company during its initial public offering. Splitit Payments, a company that gives credit-card customers the option of paying for purchases in instalments, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in January with a market capitalisation of just $54 million, issuing shares at 20¢ each. Now, its market capitalisation is $450 million – more […]
Australia to develop national blockchain strategy
The federal government will develop a national blockchain roadmap in a bid to position Australia as a global leader in distributed ledger technology. Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews announced the strategy and $100,000 in accompanying funding on Monday to nurture a “burgeoning” industry. It comes just weeks after advice from the Digital Transformation Agency urging “pragmatism” from agencies around the use of blockchain in government. The roadmap is expected to focus on policy areas like “regulation, skills and capacity building, innovation, investment and international competitiveness and collaboration”, the government said. It will be developed in consultation with experts from industry and academia, as well as CSIRO’s digital […]
