Stockspot launches AI for financial advice
Local automated investment adviser and fund manager Stockspot has announced a move into artificial intelligence and machine learning, launching what it says is Australia’s first digital financial assistant. Stockspot founder and CEO Chris Brycki said the AI functionality analysed the data of thousands of clients and made targeted recommendations, helping investors optimise their portfolio as it learns. He said the robo-adviser was launching as part of a new investment dashboard, designed to make tax reporting easier and give users more control over investments. “Stockspot introduced robo-advice to Australia 2014 which automated and lowered the cost of investing. We see AI and machine learning as robo-advice 2.0, it is the future […]
Xero joins with Wells Fargo to bolster financial web
PRESS RELEASE: The combination of limited access to capital, complex and time consuming financial processes, and the lack of confidence in business data has stifled growth and job creation in small businesses – the biggest sector of our global economy. But the financial web, which incorporates a network of organizations sharing financial data, promises to connect financial institutions and small business owners, unlocking massive productivity and growth. Today, we announced an integration with Wells Fargo, a top bank serving more than three million small businesses and one in three households in the United States. This is an exciting milestone for us in the U.S where we can connect small businesses […]
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 […]
Fintech changes the shape of banking
Jesse McWaters is the project lead for disruptive innovation in financial services at the World Economic Forum. So in January, 2014, it seemed logical to bring together about 50 senior global financial services and banking types attending Davos to consider the impact of fintech. The judgement of the experts was clear. “Banks versus fintechs? No contest,” McWaters says. The banks were considered to be protected by their scale, by their levels of consumer trust and by the regulatory complexity of the financial system. The barrier was considered simply too high for fintech start-ups to become a threat. A year later, there had been a sea change in the mood of […]
How to embrace change and survive digital disruption
Digital disruption is a trend that’s here to stay and no industry is safe. Traditional industries like manufacturing, transport, retail, tourism and hospitality, print media and entertainment may have been hit first, and hit hard, but it’s only a matter of time before others, including the advice industry, feel the heat. The banking and finance industry could lose almost a quarter of its revenue to fintech disrupters by 2021, based on a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report, ‘Blurred lines: How Fintech is shaping financial services’, says the disruption of the financial sector is already underway. It’s currently reshaping the nature of consumer banking and payments, and a second wave […]
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Blockchain and how it will change everything
In May, British billionaire Richard Branson invited a select posse of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and technology advisers to his Caribbean residence for an exclusive pow wow on an issue occupying some of the top markets minds in the world. The topic for discussion on the picturesque Necker Island was the “blockchain”. “Every now and then, something comes along that might just change everything. And this is one of those moments,” ASX chief executive Elmer Funke Kupper. In case you’re one of the many yet to wrap your head around the promising technology, blockchain, on a simple level, uses computer code to engender trust in digital-economy transactions. One of the attendees […]
Why fintech is high on the radar for this London Stock Exchange-listed company
Financial technology, or fintech, is finally getting the recognition it deserves as funding pours in and investors begin to warm up to its risky nature. Solving the technological shortcomings of banking institutions and easing payment processes while increasing consumer protection, companies under the segment have been quite instrumental in improving the quality of financial services for both customers and entrepreneurs. Following the success of Lending Club, WePay and Kabbage, dozens of fintech start-ups have entered the fray, and it didn’t take venture capitalists long to flirt with the idea of betting on them. According to the Economic Times, the industry is now worth US$4.7 trillion (AU$6.6 trillion), and have raked […]
