Simply Wall St buys US rival
Australian sharemarket visualisation fintech Simply Wall St (simplywall.st) has acquired Capp.io, its main rival in the United States, for an undisclosed amount. Simply Wall St is a stock-picking tool using software that creates visual representations of users’ stock portfolios to help them quickly work out whether they are investing their money wisely. Founder and CEO Al Bentley said Atlanta based Capp.io – started by two university students – does something similar. It has about 5000 customers in the US which will be added to Simply Wall St’s 30,000. “The acquisition allows us to strengthen our presence on the US market, where we already have majority of our customers,” Mr Bentley […]
Standardisation of data access crucial to development of Australian fintech industry
Media Release: Sydney, 4 April 2016 – One of the major challenges facing the emerging Australian fintech sector is the lack of a standardised format for accessing financial data. The complexities of accessing sufficient institutional and client data will be a major limiting factor for many of the fintech companies now trying to establish themselves in the Australian and international markets. Earlier this month, in its statement on the fintech sector, the Government highlighted the need to increase data availability across the financial service sector, to allow new products and services to be developed and support new offerings made available to the market. While supporting the Government’s initiative, InvestmentLink Chief […]
Aggregator announces fintech partnership
Liberty Network Services (LNS), the branded distribution arm of non-bank lender Liberty, has partnered with online lender Moula to better service small business clients. Through the partnership with Moula, in which Liberty acquired a part stake in last year, LNS brokers will be able to refer any small business customer directly to the fintech lender through an online portal. LNS managing director, Brendan O’Donnell, said the partnership was formed to meet the growing needs of small businesses that struggle to secure short term finance with the major banks – while also helping brokers to diversify their business. Liberty supplied Moula with $30 million in funding last year to finance its […]
Aussie fintech company AstuteWheel expands to South Africa
Fintech company AstuteWheel has launched its client engagement platform in South Africa, as the overseas advice market prepares to undergo similar regulatory reforms to Australia. Speaking at a media briefing in Sydney yesterday, AstuteWheel co-founder and managing director Hans Egger said the South African financial advice industry was beginning to move away from commissions, presenting an opportunity for a product that helps clients understand the value of advice. “It is a sophisticated financial advice market looking to grow and our solution really fills a gap for many of these practices, which are already providing good advice but need a more efficient and better client engagement process to demonstrate to clients […]
BlackRock mulling Aussie robo-advice launch
BlackRock acquired FutureAdvisor in August 2015 and rolled out the platform to financial institutions as a business-to-business service. BlackRock Australia’s head of iShares Jon Howie told InvestorDaily he believes Australia needs FutureAdvisor now. “As always with a large organisation we have to be conscious about how thinly we spread ourselves and so at the moment the focus is on getting the US application of that opportunity right,” Mr Howie said. “I can tell you that internally everyone around the world is putting their hand up and saying, ‘We can make this work in our market’. “BlackRock Australia needs the platform immediately, because it will take some time to tweak the […]
NAB enlists venture capitalists to invest in start-ups
National Australia Bank is turning to the venture capital sector to run its $50 million fund that will invest in fintech start-ups, a plan aimed at boosting innovation across the lender. The bank has appointed Todd Forest, an entrepreneur, angel investor and digital media executive, to run NAB Ventures, which expects to make its first investment in the next month or so. Alongside Mr Forest, NAB has hired Melissa Widner, one of the most senior women in Australian venture capital, who has also worked in the United States, as general partner. A co-founder of leading Australian fund Blackbird Ventures, Bill Bartee, will also work with the NAB fund as an […]
Global regulators move closer to regulating fintech
Global regulators have moved closer to regulating the fledgling fintech sector, which includes blockchain technology that supports bitcoin, to ensure the industry’s rapid growth does not pose any risks to the financial system. The Financial Stability Board (FSB), which met in Tokyo on Thursday, has agreed on a framework for categorising different components of fintech and assessing their potential risks. The FSB, made up of central bankers, regulators and finance ministry officials from the Group of 20 economies, is looking at fintech partly in response to uncertainty over whether it will “disrupt” traditional banking. Some big investment banks, including Goldman Sachs , are already investing heavily in fintech to avoid […]
Fintech threat to banks at tipping point: Citi
Many bank customers can’t even reel off the name of a financial technology company. But the threat from fintech companies is set to get very real for banks and their workers in the next decade as 30 per cent of jobs are cut to slice costs, according to a major report by US giant Citi. “Fintech is changing the world of finance. In the US and Europe, we are at a tipping point, especially in consumer banking,” the global report said. It noted that fintech companies in China had already surpassed banks and had both scale and innovation. “To remain competitive, banks need to get innovation before the fintech companies […]
