PractiFI chief executive Glenn Elliott says the Australian fintech sector, and in particular the wealth management technology sector, has “been held back for years” because users have bought technology solutions from “people who speak their industry language”.
“That makes perfect sense, and if you’re the trustee of an industry fund or the chief executive of an advice business, it is critically important that your technology vendor understands your industry and speaks your language. That’s necessary, but it’s not sufficient,” Mr Elliott told Fintech Business.
“What’s been missed is the need to ensure those vendors have technology chops, that they’re hardcore technologists.”
Mr Elliott said “far too often” technology businesses enter the market with a deep understanding of the financial services industry, but had poor technology in place.
“When you look under the hood of these tools, there’s a bit of chewing gum and there’s some string and sticky tape, and they’re just not built on solid foundations, and that’s kind of scary,” he said.
“What you tend to find with a lot of vendors is that they have an idea and they say, ‘Right, let’s hire some developers and write some code and we’ll stop when we’re at a million lines of code and we’ll see what we’ve got’. It doesn’t make for a very substantive and mature technology stack.”
Mr Elliott said it is important fintech vendors combine their industry knowledge with a solid technological understanding.
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