Big banks now also-rans in platform space


In what represents almost a reversal in the platform dominance stakes, the banks have been trumped by the minnows.
The latest data from Investment Trends reveals HUB24, Netwealth and Praemium sitting atop the list of platforms preferred for their features when, less than a decade ago, the top three positions were dominated by bank platforms such as the CFS, Macquarie Wrap and Asgard.
These days the big bank wraps are still mostly in play, but they have been supplanted by the technological agility of the newcomers.
The Investment Trends 2020 Platform Benchmarking & Competitive Analysis report had confirmed the degree to which fortunes have been reversed,
It said that for overall platform functionality ranking, HUB24 had marginally overtaken Netwealth for top spot, with consistently strong results across all six assessed categories. In a close second position, Netwealth continued to perform strongly in four out of six categories. Industry wide, the five top-ranking full-function platforms are:
- HUB24 (overall score of 89.0%)
- Netwealth (88.9%)
- Praemium (84.8%)
- BT Panorama (82.4%)
- Macquarie Wrap (76.5%)
The Investment Trends report found that platforms were responding to calls from financial advisers to better support their socially distanced advice processes, with notable functionality improvements around electronic signatures and digital acceptance tools.
Commenting on the report findings, Investment Trends Associate Research Director, King Loong Choi said the platform industry was continuing to drive innovation and functionality improvements from the back-end to front-end, which was especially vital as financial advisers and their clients adjusted to a social distanced way of living.
Referring to the platform functionality scores, Choi said the narrow difference highlighted the intense competition between the leading platforms, many of which had made meaningful refinements to their product offering, reporting, decision support tools and integration in the last 12 months.
Recommended for you
Advisers at DOD Bookkeeping, which received an $11 million penalty last week, received as much as 40 per cent of their remuneration via a bonus when clients purchased a property via a SMSF, according to court documents.
Private wealth manager Escala Partners has launched an end-to-end investment platform to strengthen its alternatives capability as clients seek sophisticated vehicles.
Perpetual Wealth Management has hired two advisers from Ord Minnett as part of five hires, just weeks after the rival firm announced it had picked up six from Perpetual Private.
ASIC has cancelled the AFSL of a Perth financial services firm following payments to its clients by the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort after a failed managed investment scheme.