Australia’s $2.2 trillion super pot drives record ETF demand
Australia’s $2.2 trillion superannuation savings pot is fuelling record demand for exchange traded funds. The number of self-managed super funds holding such investments surged to a record 100,000 in September, according to a report from BetaShares Capital and Investment Trends. SMSFs worth $635 billion are stoking hunger for income-producing assets and drove a 31 per cent surge in the number of Aussie investors who used exchange traded funds last year. Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are a type of investment that can be bought and sold like shares, tracking assets such as commodities, currencies, bonds or market indices such as the S&P/ASX 200 up and down. The interest in those funds […]
We need plans for when robots are in driver’s seat
Financial services companies, including technology-oriented fintech start-ups, are emerging to challenge the roles of banks and the large financial institutions. Fintechs are rapidly transforming and disrupting the marketplace by providing digital or “robo-advice” using highly sophisticated algorithms operating on mobile and web-based environments. Last month, the Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer, announced the Turnbull government’s intention to introduce professional standards legislation to set higher competence and ethical standards for human financial advisers — a move that is already under pressure from the robo environment. While the financial advice sector has expanded and matured over the past two decades, fuelled in part by new technologies, the regulatory framework […]
Fintech needs security baked in from the start
Fintech has been labelled a modern day gold rush fuelled by ambitious entrepreneurs and innovative technologies and consumer demand. KPMG and CB Insights’ “The Pulse of Fintech”report found that global investment in fintech currently sits at $13.8 billion with $4.5bn invested in the Asia-Pacific, across 140 deals. But as the relationship between new technologies, such as bitcoin and blockchain, and financial services deepens, so do the threats posed by increasingly sophisticated hackers. No market is more affected by cybercrime than financial services. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2016 Global Economic Crime Survey found that 48 per cent of financial sector respondents reported to have been affected by cybercrime, compared with 36 per cent across […]
Insurers brace for mega fintech shake up
The insurance industry has largely remained the same in the past 100 years, but the sector is in for its biggest shake up as investors continue to pump billions of dollars into “insurtech”, fuelling sweeping changes through technology. Insurance is the second most disrupted industry today thanks to a growing number of start-ups and technology companies eyeing slices of the insurance pie. Research from PwC found that the global insurance industry ranked second only behind media and entertainment as the industry that is most significantly affected by technological change. And Australia, where the general insurance market is dominated by players such as Suncorp Group, IAG and QBE Insurance Group, is […]
