China giant Tencent funds Melbourne fintech start-up
Melbourne-based fintech start-up Airwallex has landed a $US13 million Series A funding round, becoming one of the first Australian companies to raise money from China’s biggest internet company, Tencent. Airwallex, which is building a new foreign exchange payment network, raised funding from the world’s fourth-biggest internet company, along with Sequoia Capital China and Mastercard. “We’ve built a digital banking layer and a digital compliance layer across traditional banking infrastructure,” co-founder and CEO Jack Zhang told The Australian. “You can think of us as a payment network; we’re offering a faster, cheaper way of making payments happen.” Airwallex lets businesses issue and pay invoices in their preferred currency at the mid-market […]
BGL & SelfWealth team up to provide value added services for Accountants
BGL Corporate Solutions and SelfWealth have teamed up to provide free value added services for Simple Fund 360 clients. SelfWealth, Australia’s only flat fee brokerage solution is now fully integrated with Simple Fund 360; Australia’s leading SMSF cloud solution. The integration gives Accountants free access to SelfWealth’s fixed fee trading solution, portfolio construction tools and stock research powered by Thomson Reuters with the ability to extend these services to their clients. “The integration is well timed” said Ron Lesh, Managing Director of BGL. “With the early adopters of Simple Fund 360 experiencing significant time savings through automation, they are now looking to expand their services to provide more value to […]
Become a property investor for just $57 with BRICKX
Australians can now invest in an apartment in Darlinghurst for just $57 with BRICKX. BRICKX CEO Anthony Millet said it’s the lowest Brick price yet. “We’re thrilled to offer investors a share in this inner-Sydney property at such a low price point,” Mr Millet said. “With the Brick price starting at just $57, BRICKX continues to strive to make property investment affordable for all Australians”. BRICKX breaks down traditional barriers that exist when it comes to investing in residential real estate by dividing properties into 10,000 units or “Bricks”. Investors may then earn capital returns and monthly net rental income in proportion to the number of […]
Advisers urged to dump simplistic advice to drive growth
Financial planners need to be prepared to shed some clients and rebuild their value proposition if they are to achieve sustainable growth, according to a new white paper released by Matrix Planning Solutions and ClearView Financial Advice. The whitepaper, which has drawn on the experiences of Matrix advisers, argues that for financial planners to deal with the competitive pressures being driven by robo-advice and industry superannuation funds, they need to deliver a better value proposition. “In order for advisers to remain compliant and secure in their position as trusted adviser, they must continuously add value,” it said. “The way to continuously add value is to delve deeper into their clients’ […]
Macquarie’s plan to beat the investment robots
Investing robots and index funds are poaching billions of dollars from human fund managers, but Macquarie Investment Management head of the Americas Shawn Lytle says the firm is repositioning to cope with the seismic shift into passive investing. Globally, droves of investors are yanking money from high-fee active managers and parking their funds in passive strategies such as exchange-traded funds that ride the ups and downs of select markets. Macquarie Investment Management, a global division which manages about $US257 billion of Macquarie Group’s $US362 billion in assets under management, is aiming to differentiate by offering more unique actively managed equities, bonds and alternative assets such as infrastructure. “We are at […]
Why your financial adviser loves ETFs
The next time you chat to a financial adviser about portfolio construction strategies, depending on your investment focus of course, the conversation could very well turn to the use of exchange-traded funds. Advisers have become one of the core drivers behind Australia’s rapidly growing ETFs sector, which at the start of this month edged past $26.6 billion in total assets under management. So far this calendar year about $1.2bn in new investor funds have been channelled into ASX-listed ETFs. Research just released by research firm Investment Trends and ETFs issuer BetaShares shows seven out of 10 advisers are either currently recommending the use of ETFs to their clients or intend […]
IRESS readies industry for Fair and Sustainable Superannuation reforms
Financial technology provider IRESS says that just two months out from the introduction of new superannuation laws, administrators and financial advisers should now be in the final stages of preparation. The superannuation laws, known as the Fair & Sustainable Superannuation reforms, introduce new tax concessions, a $1.6 million transfer balance cap, the removal of the tax exemptions for Transition to Retirement pensions and a new system of ‘catch-up’ concessional contributions to assist those with broken work patterns. IRESS’ superannuation administration platform, Acurity, and its financial advice technology, XPLAN, have now provided a range of updates to clients in response to the complex changes, with new versions being provided under existing […]
Robo adviser Six Park says lower balance SMSFs are viable
A robo adviser backed by four founding members of the Future Fund says that pre-retirees with starting balances of under $150,000 can run their own super funds, despite the corporate watchdog cracking down on providers that offer low-balance SMSF set-ups. The chief executive of Six Park Patrick Garrett said that the robo adviser, which counts the former federal finance minister Lindsay Tanner as both a financial backer and an advisory board member, is launching a lower-cost establishment service to make self-managed superannuation funds more “accessible” and easier to run, particularly for those with small balances. “I wouldn’t recommend a $10,000 SMSF account. But we have one of our first clients, […]
