Intiger software is assisting CommBank’s planners across its financial planning arm, with the bank eyeing the potential of using the technology to keep its back office costs in check and get a better understanding of advice doled out to the public.
Intiger has struck three independent agreements with the bank’s Commonwealth Financial Planning, Financial Wisdom and Count Financial subsidiaries, with the fintech’s managing director, Mark Fisher, hopeful the pilot projects could translate into a long-term opportunity for Intiger.
“The software tackles the two fundamental issues facing the financial planning industry — quality and cost,” he said.
“Licensees, like CBA, are responsible for the quality of the advice that is provided by the advisers, but they don’t have any practical oversight of that. Meanwhile, the cost of providing financial advice in Australia is very high because of the compliance and processing requirements placed on them.”
Intiger’s platform, LiLLY, automates the production of statements of advice and works in tandem with the company’s online practice management system KLIP, which tracks key performance indicators of a financial planning practice.
“We are cautiously optimistic that all three pilots will conclude successfully and swiftly, however, they may not. All three could be taken up, or maybe only one decides to use it.”
CBA’s wealth management division posted a $550 million profit in the 2017 financial year and has more than $146 billion in funds under management and $219bn of assets under management.
CFP, Financial Wisdom and Count Financial collectively cater to a customer base of more than a million customers, providing them a range of services including financial planning, accounting, superannuation and wealth management. The bank bought Count Financial in August 2011 for $373m to beef up its financial planning arm. However, there has been some speculation that CBA may look to offload Count and Financial Wisdom
Financial Wisdom is a network of individual financial advisers with their own businesses, while Count operates Australia’s largest network of accountant-based professional advisers, with almost 300 accounting firms nationwide.
According to Mr Fisher, the fact that one of the big four banks was ready to put Intiger’s software to the test was in itself a big win for the company.
“CBA isn’t the only one that has this problem, every single retail financial institution in Australia is facing the same problem and the pilots have now validated that Intiger’s software is pragmatic and effective,” he said.
“Compliance and quality control of advice is a big challenge for all banks and the fact that CBA is looking to use technology to improve both is a credit to them.”
The trials will start in the first quarter of 2018. Intiger did not say how much revenue the pilots would generate, with the total amount “dependent upon the volume and the ultimate duration of the pilot, both of which are uncertain”.
Intiger made its debut on the ASX in 2016 via a backdoor listing at 2c a share and has been largely flying under the radar. The CBA deal could potentially be the shot in the arm Intiger needs to get noticed.
“The market has understandably been waiting for us to deliver an entity of this size, which is fair, and we are hopeful that this will lead to more engagement with investors,” Mr Fisher said.
“We don’t need any money from the market because the software can be scaled up quickly without the need of extra capital investment, so for us it’s all about execution.”
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