Acorns Australia rebrands to Raiz Invest
Acorns Australia has rebranded to Raiz Invest, a move that follows the company’s announcement in February to divest from Acorns. From today, all users will be prompted to update their Acorns Australia app, after which they will see the new Raiz Invest brand, logo and colour scheme. The website will also reflect the new name and branding. Raiz Invest Managing Director, George Lucas, said: “Today marks another significant milestone in our company’s history with the name change from Acorns Grow Australia to Raiz Invest. “After our recent agreement with Acorns, we felt a new name was an important step forward. The change reflects our new autonomy and our ability to […]
Wealth management products make big leaps in digital sales readiness
Australians can now apply for 60% of all wealth management products offered by the country’s biggest banks from their mobile phones, according to a fintech which helps financial services companies acquire clients. Avoka measured digital sales readiness for the 50 largest banks across Australia, North America and Europe for products across three segments: personal banking, business banking and wealth management. Eleven of the 50 banks were Australian. Australia “leads them all” in digital readiness, the fintech said. “Banks have accepted that online account opening is a must have, not a ‘nice to have’. The focus now is on whether the largest banks can transform their entire customer engagement across all […]
HUB24 expands distribution with two appointments
HUB24 has announced Colonial First State’s (CFS’s) Shane Muscat and Paula Day have joined the platform provider to expand its distribution capability and support network. Muscat, former head of institutional sales at CFS, has been appointed as head of strategic sales at HUB24, and would lead new business initiatives with licensees, boutiques and new corporate partners. Prior to CFS, Muscat held senior roles at Macquarie Wrap and Avanteos. Day, former CFS head of strategic accounts has been appointed as head of key accounts and would manage and build strategic relationships with the platform provider’s large licensee clients. Day had previously worked for various firms including Westpac, ING Australia and BlackRock. […]
Crowd2Fund prepares to cross fintech bridge to Australia
Leading P2P lending platform Crowd2Fund are launching an Australian office by becoming one the first UK-based companies to utilise the new ‘FinTech Bridge’ between the UK and Australia. The Enhanced Cooperation Agreement, signed in March 2018 between the FCA and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), will make it easier for regulated FinTech companies in both Australia and the UK to start trading in either market. Key benefits of the Bridge include the speeding up of company licensing between the two territories, as well as more strategic collaboration between the FSA and ASIC in order to grow the respective markets of each country. Michael Ward, the Director General for […]
Australian millennials have taken to robo financial advice
Australian millennials are dominating when it comes to using robo-advice to get ahead with their money, according to the latest Robo-advice Report from Investment Trends. The study is based on a survey of 10,000 online investors and 1,425 financial advisers between February and December 2017 across Australia, the US, the UK, Spain, Germany, France, Singapore and Hong Kong. In Australia, robo-advice has gained significant recognition among the Australian online share investor population, with 22% saying they are familiar with these services. Only in the US, where the bulk of innovation in robo-advice is taking place, is familiarity with robo-advice significantly higher (39%). “The Australian financial services industry is ripe for […]
Fintech launches active trading platform with no monthly fees
Saxo Capital Markets Australia has launched its new active trading platform that will let users trade over 35,000 financial instruments at no monthly fees and without expensive legacy hardware. The product is aimed at professional traders and smaller institutional investors, according to Saxo Capital Markets Australia chief executive Ben Smoker. “With SaxoTraderPRO, we are aiming to provide professional traders and institutional investors at the small and medium-sized funds segment with a higher level of platform tools and functionality, which allows them to operate with similar capabilities to what large institutions have,” Smoker said. SaxoTraderPRO allows trading of stocks, bonds, ETFs CFDs, futures, options, forex and other asset classes on compatible […]
BGL releases the first SMSF Artificial Intelligence in Simple Fund 360
BGL Corporate Solutions, Australia’s leading supplier of SMSF administration and ASIC corporate compliance solutions, is proud to announce the release of Stage 1 of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assistant for Simple Fund 360. This is a first in the SMSF admin software industry. “This is a huge achievement by our Simple Fund 360 Team” says “BGL Managing Director, Ron Lesh. “BGL has been working on AI for over 12 months. We needed to teach the AI Engine about SMSF transactions through a process known as Deep Learning. This results in Simple Fund 360 providing a level of confidence on where transactions have been allocated in the ledger based on the […]
Venture capital investment in FinTech reaches record US$27.4 billion high
Global investment in FinTechs by venture capital grew to a record $27.4 billion in 2017, spurred on by high deal value in the US, UK and India. Digital payments and lending services attracted the most investment capital. FinTech (financial technology) startups continue to draw the interest of venture capital around the world. Venture capital firms and funds continue to see great potential in the disruptive FinTech firms which are providing user-friendly financial services and products through modern and innovative technology: digital payments services and online lending platforms the foremost among them. Confidence in FinTech has accelerated venture capital financing in the industry to a record level of $27.4 billion in […]
