FinClear captures 50% of market with Dion acquisition
FinClear, the Australian clearing, settlement and wealth management technology and service provider, has captured approx. 50% of the Australian retail clearing and settlement market with a transformational acquisition of the Australian assets of financial technology company Dion Global.
Managing Director David Ferrall said the acquisition, which will complete in September, would support the firm’s rapid growth and provide efficiencies of scale.
“We’ve seen a tremendous response locally since we launched last year – we have grown our stockbroking client base from zero to 20 clients in less than 12 months and doubled our resources with teams in Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and now Perth,” he said. “Because we manage the entire investment cycle for our wholesale clients, from portfolio construction to trading, settlement and clearing, it makes sense for us to own the technology all the way through as well. Demand for a low-cost HIN platform solution from the wealth industry is genuine and we are now the best positioned to provide this service given our complete ownership of the contract note manufacturing facility and our technology partnerships.”
The acquisition includes Dion Australia’s local assets – IP, staff and contracts. FinClear will gain 20 additional staff including well-respected development teams in Perth and Melbourne. The two technology products FinClear will incorporate are iBroker, a post-trade processing system embedded at two of Australia’s largest commercial banks clearing over 50% of trades across ASX and Chi-X, and TradeCentre, a cost-efficient trading management and platform solution which covers all the trading and client management needs of financial planners, wealth advisors and stockbrokers.
“It’s fair to say there’s been a lot of change in both the wealth space, and the clearing and settlement space, in Australia over the past year or so,” said Mr Ferrall. “Stockbroking and financial advice firms are looking for stable, efficient partners who can take away risk and uncertainty from running a financial services business while also providing them with technology solutions to help scale their businesses. We are here to do that. FinClear is a now a leader for stockbroking, financial advice and planning firms to outsource their back office, middle office, trading and client facing technology needs. Low-brokerage HIN hosting, coupled with automated ROA production, is an example of our service delivery capability.”
Clients who will be provided software and services under the new FinClear entity include two of Australia’s Big Four banks as well as one of the country’s largest investment banks; Hartley’s; the Sequoia Group and Pershing. They join existing clients and partners including BNP Paribas, PAC Partners, Providence Wealth and Hobson Wealth in New Zealand.
