FinTech Interviews: GROW Super
by Matthew Parker, The Mitchellake Group Over the coming weeks, I will have the pleasure of sitting down with many of Australia’s leading FinTech CEOs. Each will be discussing the specific vertical of Financial Services they are looking at and share their insights. For the first interview in this series, I sat down with the CEO of GROW Super, Josh Wilson, to discuss the stream of innovation that is occurring in the Superannuation vertical. Matthew Parker (MP): There have been a few new “disruptive” superannuation businesses launch over the past 2 years. Why is this happening now? What has created the right circumstance for this to occur? Josh Wilson […]
Finding the right partners key to success
In a recent white paper on the future of payments involving The Australian Financial Review and Braintree, one of the key findings was more than a quarter of businesses work with three or more payment partners. This can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand it ensures an organisation can reach a wider range of consumers but on the other, it injects more complexity into the mix such as more security issues. For business, getting the payments element of online commerce right is critical as is getting the right payments partner. Growing companies need a payments partner that can scale quickly and deal with a range […]
Former AFL star Ted Richards’ goal for robo adviser Six Park
Ted Richards learnt an important investment lesson as a young footballer, one that would lead him to pursuing a career in the financial services sector after he retired from sport. Richards was drafted to AFL club Essendon as a 17-year-old in late 2000 and once in the sporting system found himself getting paid relatively well for someone his age and wondering what to do with his money. A gift from his father, the Peter Lynch book One Up On Wall Street, gave him the idea of dabbling in the stock market. “I was 17, living at home and didn’t have a lot of expenses, so when I started getting pay […]
Acorns launches sustainable investment portfolio
The Australian micro-investing app today launches its socially responsible Emerald Portfolio following feedback from millennial customers. Micro-investing app Acorns today launches the Emerald Portfolio – an investment option designed to meet environmental, social and corporate governance standards. The app allows Australians to invest their small change, by rounding-up their everyday purchases and putting that money towards one of six investment portfolio options. The new socially driven portfolio option is a result of continued customer feedback, with strong customer demand for an investment option that aligns with their personal values. Acorns says this feedback has largely been driven by millennials, who have been quick to take up the micro-investing app since […]
Fintech a vertical integration disruptor – ASIC
Vertical integration, particularly with respect to the major banks, is likely to be eroded by financial service technology, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chairman, Greg Medcraft. Giving evidence before Senate Estimates, Medcraft said he believed the banks were starting to realise that owning something and cross-selling was probably not a viable strategy anymore. Asked by Tasmanian Green Senator, Peter Whish-Wilson whether vertical integration was being addressed in line with the recommendations of the Murray Review, Medcraft said he believed progress was being made. Whish-Wilson also asked whether the financial services technology changes had been a factor in ANZ’s decision to exit some of its wealth management business. […]
Robo-advice finds market in digital-savvy older investors
Hey robo-advisers … You’re looking the wrong way! Millennials have no spare money and don’t care about investing just yet — but older Australian investors are more than ready to play. One survey after another in the US shows older investors are actually super keen to examine low-cost digital-based financial services. And closer to home, it’s worth pointing out that a recent survey from the SMSF Association revealed a higher portion of Australia’s one million SMSF operators were willing to try robo-advice than the general public. No doubt this emerging reality has not been lost on the kingpins of Australian finance — the banks. Earlier this week, NAB funds management […]
