Fintech firms putting ‘immense pressure’ on licensees

Speaking at the IMAP InvestTech 2017 conference in early December, Sharesight chief executive Doug Morris said “the marketplace is a move away from vertically integrated services” and this is causing problems for established players such as investment platforms and aligned dealer groups.

“If you think about an investment platform or an aligned dealer-group, they’re under immense pressure,” he said.

“If you think of that as a stack of blocks standing up tall, and you push that over, what we’re really seeing is all those different services spilling out across the floor – and from our perspective, it’s the investor who is repackaging those services together to create solutions.”

Mr Morris said many of fintech firms are set up by ex-financial services people, but are staffed by former technology industry employees from the likes of Facebook and Google, and these staff are “really good at getting in front of investors”.

“If an investor looks at something online before they come in to your office, or if they google something immediately after, chances are they’re going to get on the radar of the fintech firms – and they’re going to sign up for their services,” he said.

“This presents quite the challenge for the professionals.”