NSW urged to lift fintech efforts to protect jobs
The NSW government needs to lift efforts to ensure Sydney captures new financial services jobs in fintech as competition from the likes of Melbourne and Singapore to attract them intensifies, says a report prepared for the Committee for Sydney by KPMG, to be released on Tuesday.
With fintech automation set to slice thousands of paper-pushing jobs in financial services incumbents over the coming years, a battle is in progress to attract the start-ups and technology giants redefining the future of banking. The Committee for Sydney report, titled Scaling the fintech opportunity for Sydney and Australia, urges government to get more active promoting Australia and Sydney as a leading global financial services centre with a focus on fintech and digital innovation.
The number of fintech start-ups in Australia has increased from less than 100 in 2014 to an estimated 579 today, with 59 per cent based in Sydney. These start-ups are employing more than 10,000 people, the report says. This number is expected to grow substantially, particularly if the start-ups can attract customers to allow them to scale-up.
Drivers of fintech include declining trust in major institutions, dropping loyalty of bank customers, embracing of self-service, and growing customer demand for faster, more convenient and accessible finance and payment services embedded into their online experiences. Regulatory support for start-ups is also helping, the report says.
Its author Ian Pollari, KPMG’s national banking head and global co-leader of fintech, said there has been plenty of talk about the fintech opportunity over the past three years and now the sector needs to show it is capable of delivering by shifting its focus on outcomes.
“We need to do a better job selling what we have built to the world, we can be too internally focused as a country,” he said. “We tend to look offshore to think what we can do to improve, rather than articulating the value we have created here.”
Despite a global slide in fintech investment last year, Australian fintech investment remained strong with $US675 million ($845.5 million) invested across fintech 25 deals, up from $US185 million across 23 deals in 2015, KPMG found. Asian fintech investment also hit a high in 2016 at $US8.6 billion, with seven of the top 10 deals falling into the payments or wealth management verticals.
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Source: NSW urged to lift fintech efforts to protect jobs | afr.com
