Robo-advice start-ups go beyond disruption to new clients
Robo-advice start-ups are looking to use technology to drive massive expansion in the financial advice market, rather than to simply disrupt it. While established players, such as AMP, and the wealth management arms of banks are among those vulnerable to robo-advice, start-ups claim they are not targeting their market. “People talk about disrupting the financial services industry with robo-advice, but only 20 per cent of the country gets advice,” David Pettit, chief executive of Perth-based robo-advice start-up Future Penny, told The Australian. “There’s a massive piece of the market that aren’t seeking or engaging with advice professionals.” Robo-advice delivers investors a low-cost investment management portfolio based on algorithms and technology. […]
Blockchain more than hype: Nikko AM
Speaking on a panel at the Bloomberg buy-side forum, Nikko Asset Management managing director Sam Hallinan described blockchain as “the new facilitator”, one that is set to drastically improve efficiency in the sector. “It could be deemed hype, but it could also be the biggest change to asset management in years,” he said. Blockchain’s capacity to list and reconcile transactions and trades represents a marked shift from traditional methods, which rely on several phonecalls and paperwork, Mr Hallinan said. “The current method of reconciling trades hasn’t changed in 40 years,” he added. According to Mr Hallinan, the change to retail market interaction triggered by robo-advice is significant, and he noted […]
Fintech MoneyMe progresses diversified lending platform, entering phase ‘2.0’
Consumer fintech startup, MoneyMe, has announced it’s launch into what they’re calling ‘MoneyMe 2.0’, with the release of a new $10,000 loan product, expanding it’s portfolio of all-purpose consumer loan products designed for the tech- savvy, convenience-driven millennial market. The product expansion signals MoneyMe’s transition from being a simple small loans provider, to a diversified consumer lending fintech driven by an advanced in-house technology platform that automates loan application approvals and reduces interest costs through intelligent customer profiling algorithms. “MoneyMe’s ultimate objective has never been to remain in one segment of the lending market, rather from day one we envisaged using technology to revolutionise the way finance is delivered to […]
Big banks face big risk of losing customers
Australia’s big banks face a huge risk of losing their most valuable customers to their fintech rivals, new research has shown. According to an analysis conducted by Centre for Social Economics and Roy Morgan Research, the big bank customers most likely to churn, instead turning to tech-savvy fintech providers, are their “most valuable customers”. The fintech phenomenon, according to Roy Morgan, taps into a new consumer mindset – called the Desire Economy – where 64% would prefer never to go into a traditional bank branch. Ever again. Consumers in the Desire Economy are younger, well educated, tech-adopting, urban dwellers. Forty percent are early adopters of technology compared to only 5% […]
Meet eight fintechs changing financial services
When you have just seven minutes to sell your idea as the next big thing to change banking and investment, every moment counts. Thirty of the country’s best fintechs are pitching to a room full of 160-plus bankers, brokers and venture capitalists at the Grand Hyatt ballroom in Melbourne, where their story, business plan and even looks are all being judged. From payments to wealth management, peer-to-peer lending and crowd funding, fintech start-ups are taking aim at the heart of the financial services industry and a pot of revenues that Goldman Sachs estimates at $4.7 trillion. The banks are all vying for a stake in these disrupters before they join […]
Global FinTechs take on Big Four in new Australian frontier
When U.S.-based financial technology company Acorns launched in Australia in February, its mobile app that helps people invest loose pennies in stock markets received nearly 70,000 downloads in just over two months, beating its own expectations. The ‘virtual piggy bank’ chose Australia as its first foreign market thanks to the country’s deep Internet and mobile penetration and tech-savvy population, Managing Director George Lucas told Reuters. Acorns’ entry is a reflection of rising interest in Australia from overseas financial technology – or FinTech – companies, drawn by its heavy banking concentration and limited competition, consultants and financial advisors said. The country’s $348 million alternate finance lending market, which includes peer-to-peer lending […]
Fintech threatens Australia’s biggest banks – Roy Morgan Research
The global fintech phenomenon threatens Australia’s traditional banks by stealing their most valuable customers. This new digital market is growing exponentially leaving traditional banks looking dangerously like commodity utilities. According to Accenture investment in fintech grew globally by 201% in 2014. [1] Australia has the fifth highest rate of fintech use in the world. [2] Fintech is the digital, often peer-to-peer, channel enabling tech-savvy consumers to borrow or invest without ever having to deal with a traditional bank. In early April Australian peer-to-peer start-up SocietyOne reportedly reached $100m of loans on its digital platform. The burning question for the traditional Australian banks is, which of their customers are most at […]
Blockchain may transform banking, says CBA CEO Ian Narev
CoinDesk, an online news publication covering bitcoin and its underlying technology, published a feature article last week with the headline: “Have we reached peak blockchain hype?” That’s a fair question, given the extensive global attention the blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, has been receiving of late. Diverse applications are being touted, traversing banking, law, conveyancing and logistics to overturning corrupt governments in developing countries. With banks around the world rushing to join projects to build “permissioned ledgers” (blockchains with a restricted membership), proponents in the financial services sector are growing acutely aware that hype can turn into a noose. And so blockchain expectations management is in full swing: technologists inside […]
