Financial services firm SFG Australia (SFG) is in the early stages of developing a new platform offering for its client base.
SFG managing director Tony Fenning told InvestorDaily the new project, FinHQ, is a way for the company to provide a platform offering that is more client centric, than adviser centric.
In the past, the ex-Shadforth business ran one main investment platform, the BT Wrap, and the ex-Snowball business ran with Asgard and Colonial First State’s badged offering, Symetry, Fenning explained.
As a result of last year’s merger of the Shadforth business with the Snowball business, SFG now has a “significant” client base on each platform.
“What we really want to do is build a consolidation of information for the clients and then see where that journey takes us . and then start to development, through client feedback, what the clients want to see fundamentally through the web in terms of reporting on their portfolios,” he said.
Unlike platform models in the United States, according to Fenning, Australia’s platform model do not embrace high levels of client control over the transactions and so it is passes through to the adviser.
As part of SFG’s development plans, the company has spoken with its main platform suppliers and others in the market calling for a redesign to the platform model.
“What we’d like to see is the platforms themselves figure out their own front end so that we could give the clients more fulsome access,” he said.
“But the response we’ve got so far is whilst they agree in principle in that need and some of them are working on it, it’s a pretty big deal.”
As a result, Fenning does not believe Australia will see a dramatic change within the platform sector any time soon.
“So if you like, this is a piece of work by us to string together as much of that result as we can in the meantime,” he said.
“It’s meant to be a relatively low IT spend project. So it’s mostly just our existing CRM [customer relationship management] system and channelling the data through there to give a consistent level of reporting and then just putting a front end on that.”
Meanwhile, last week Fenning announced the appointment of David Pitcher as head of finHQ.
Pitcher joins the firm from QBE where he held the role as head of business solutions in the investment division.
He has also held senior roles with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, St George Bank and American Express in New York.
