InvestmentLink in the Media

Australian based financial advice technology provider - Midwinter Financial Services has today announced that it has completed its transaction to acquire Australian financial data repository – InvestmentLink Pty Ltd.

Founded in 1999, InvestmentLink possesses an unmatchable network with 4.4 million client accounts across more than 300 superannuation and managed funds, with a total balance of over $40 billion dollars – managed by 12,00 advisers for over 200 dealer groups. In addition to this the Investmentlink platform contains a further 300 credit cards, mortgage providers, direct share trading platforms, bank accounts and term deposits, making it the most comprehensive data repository in Australia.

This strategic purchase is timely for Midwinter and the financial advice industry more broadly – with the onset of open banking underway and increasing industry demand for a single page view of a client.

Midwinter expects to see various client benefits as a result of this purchase including decrease in latency in pushing data from fund manager to advice software, as well as the synchronising the release of Datafeeds within AdviceOS.

Executive Director and Co-founder of Midwinter – Julian Plummer has been appointed as the new Managing Director of InvestmentLink. Mr Plummer is delighted to announce the successful acquisition, saying “

Midwinter has worked closely with InvestmentLink for many years and thus, the process of acquisition has run smoothly.

InvestmentLink will be undergoing a rebrand shortly, in line with coming under the Midwinter group company structure.

InvestmentLink, Australia’s largest financial data source, is pleased to announce the appointment of Owen Joyce as the company looks to further develop solutions to assist financial planners, accountants, bookkeepers and mortgage brokers better engage with their retail audience.

Owen has two decades of experience in senior sales and general management roles, mainly in the training and education sector, and joins the business as Chief Commercial Officer. He will be using his experience to help InvestmentLink develop CashDeck and other initiatives designed to encourage individuals to better use technology to learn how to manage their money.

"CashDeck can help people effortlessly understand their spending habits and know at any given time what their money is doing. We believe that this simple to use tool can help alleviate some of the financial stress and vulnerability that over 60% of Australians carry with them every day," Joyce said. 

CashDeck tracks all user accounts such as banks, credit cards, loans and superannuation. It auto-categorises transactions and provides reporting so that the user knows where every cent of their money is any given time.

"If you've got accounts with more than one financial institution and you'd like a simple way to be smarter with your money, CashDeck is a very effective product," Joyce added. 

For partners, CashDeck provides a platform that allows all clients to be easily managed from one, easy to use interface. “Partners can use a white-label CashDeck solution to engage with clients much more regularly. It can even offer new revenue opportunities at times of the year that might typically be considered off-season,” Joyce said.

InvestmentLink Chief Technology Officer Wayne Robinson said Owen will play an important role in expanding the company’s CashDeck platform. “CashDeck is designed to help planners engage with their clients and prospective clients. Central to this is giving individuals, and their advisers, a real-time understanding of their financial position. We see education as key to improving this relationship, and Owen’s experience developing educational programs will add to the strength of the existing team.”

“As well as the appointment of Owen, InvestmentLink has expanded its sales and marketing team with the appointment of Daniel Henderson as Partner Relationship Manager. Daniel joins Sales Manager Kevin Naing in educating partners in understanding the significant capability the CashDeck platform can bring to their business.

The fintech sector has yet to deliver effective tools for the financial planning industry, argues financial data provider InvestmentLink.

In a statement this morning, InvestmentLink said most of the existing fintech is focused on offering solutions to individuals, and struggling to convince consumers to pay directly.

Instead, fintech companies should be focused on satisfying the unmet demand in the financial advice space, said InvestmentLink chief technology officer Wayne Robinson.

“We think that advisers will be happy to pay for a platform that delivers what they actually need. While some products for advisers have been developed, most on the market at the moment have been developed for specific dealer groups, with limited application or adaptability for the wider adviser community,” he said.

“We have been working with financial planners for over 20 years and our clients tell us they are looking for a product that they can integrate into their practices.

They are looking for a product that can cut administrative time and allow them to focus on value-adding advice.”

Mr Robinson added that one of the functionalities that advisers are looking for includes an intuitive usability for both advisers and clients.

“It has to be able to be branded to the adviser’s practice so that the client is interacting with the adviser not just the application, and the ability to share data is crucial,” he said.

“Properly leveraging available data will also allow for proactive client monitoring and enhanced and automated compliance abilities. The platform should be able to deliver notifications to advisers – alerts that the adviser needs to engage with the client.

“A good technology solution will reduce costs and increase efficiencies for both planners and clients.”

InvestmentLink, Australia’s largest independent financial data source, today announced financial planning software developer Harmonee as the first recipient of the company’s data grant. The grant is designed to support emerging companies in the Australian fintech sector and provides access to a feed of financial account and investment fund data at no cost for a period of 18 months.

Harmonee is developing a platform to help financial advisers offer streamlined services to clients. As well as enhancing the advice offering, the platform will provide remote and mobile access to portfolios and reporting.

"Data feeds are vital for us to deliver our solutions. Not only will we be able to offer real-time reporting to clients, data feeds will save us and our clients time and money, and reduce compliance risks significantly," said Harmonee founder Damien Burns.

“We are very excited about the opportunity to gain access to InvestmentLink’s valuable data source.”

InvestmentLink Chief Technology Officer Wayne Robinson said the company is looking forward to working with Harmonee as it rolls out its offering to the Australian market.

InvestmentLink’s grant is being made available to Australian fintech start-ups and will give them access to 600 data feeds. It will include 500 live accounts, with access to test accounts and the InvestmentLink API.

InvestmentLink has been offering data services to the financial services sector for over 20 years. Its data is currently used by over 12,000 financial planners and 200 dealer groups. The InvestmentLink platform holds data on over 4.4 million client accounts with more than $40 billion in funds under management.

Further details about the data grant, and the application process, can be found on our Grant page.

InvestmentLink, Australia’s largest independent financial data source, today announced the establishment of a data grant designed to support emerging companies in the Australian fintech sector. The grant will give selected companies access to a feed of financial account and investment fund data at no cost for a period of 18 months.

The grant is being made available to Australian fintech start-ups and will give them access to 600 data feeds. It will include 500 live accounts, with access to test accounts and the InvestmentLink API.

InvestmentLink Chief Technology Officer Wayne Robinson said the program will provide a significant boost to those companies awarded a grant, and help them demonstrate their value proposition to the market.

“We are excited by what we see in the Australian fintech space. There are a number of emerging companies that have the potential to make a very serious impact on the market and deliver real innovation to consumers. Given the nature of the Australian market, particularly the dominance of the major players, they face a number of challenges—one of them—getting access to sufficient data to be able to demonstrate what they can offer the market.”

“Given the financial constraints that most start-ups face, we are hoping that access to the most comprehensive data feed in Australia at no cost, for a limited period, will provide a real boost.”

InvestmentLink has been offering data services to the financial services sector for over 20 years. It collects data from over 600 funds, platforms, wraps and other accounts. The data is currently used by over 12,000 financial planners and 200 dealer groups. The InvestmentLink platform holds data on over 4.4 million client accounts with more than $40 billion in funds under management.

One of the major challenges facing the emerging Australian fintech sector is the lack of a standardised format for accessing financial data. The complexities of accessing sufficient institutional and client data will be a major limiting factor for many of the fintech companies now trying to establish themselves in the Australian and international markets.

Earlier this month, in its statement on the fintech sector, the Government highlighted the need to increase data availability across the financial service sector, to allow new products and services to be developed and support new offerings made available to the market.

While supporting the Government’s initiative, InvestmentLink Chief Technology Officer Wayne Robinson said it needs to go further. “The Government has rightly highlighted the challenges that data access poses for the sector. Its focus, however, remains too narrow, concerned mainly with credit data. There is a wider emerging financial service sector that also needs access to sufficient data to prove its value.”

“The finetch sector as a whole needs better access to a broad range of financial data. Companies across the spectrum face the same challenges, of accessing data in an efficient and cost-effective way.”

“Currently, major financial institutions do not provide generic solutions to allow access to data, they develop one-off solutions for individual companies. This is an expensive process, and one that large institutions are reluctant to do for developing fintech companies, particularly for companies that have yet to develop a significant customer base.”

“The development of standardised access solutions, covering institutional data and allowing clients to authorize third-party access to personal transactional data, would be a major boost for the emerging fintech sector.”

“New fintech products promise to revolutionise how all Australian engage with their most important financial asset, their superannuation. It’s not only the 16% of Australians that currently use a planner that will benefit from better access to data. Better access to superannuation data will open up a whole new category of financial product – improving engagement, improving risk management and ensuring that Australian workers are receiving the most appropriate financial services for their specific circumstances.”

“We have been providing financial data to the market for over 20 years, and would be very happy to work with the Government and industry on developing protocols that would enable more efficient sharing,” Mr. Robinson said.

InvestmentLink believes one option to manage improved access to data could be through the establishment of an independent body charged with ensuring all firms are complying with established protocols.