Discussion, engagement, action!

Dear readers,

How are things? Busy?

It just seems to be the default answer these days, I thought technology was going to make life easier not busier. However, we still have to choose what we get involved with and that’s normally a personal decision.

So since my last note its been all about getting the message out and getting Government engaged. 

The Regulatory Roundtable lunch  was a roaring success, the Minister said “we need to do this more often” each part of the financial services sector  was represented and we had some clarity, robust debate and a collective view that industry and government working together to achieve positive outcomes was the best way forward. This is especially important when we talk about financial literacy, financial inclusion, Open Banking and driving economic growth from the fastest growing part of the tech sector.

I have been speaking a lot with the New Zealand Government on opportunities here at home, what could the Free Trade Agreement with the UK mean for fintech companies in both countries? And spending time with Hong Kong New Zealand Business Association (HKNZBA), New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and the Director General for Invest HK. It is clear to me that New Zealand has lots of opportunities to become recognised as a fintech centre, we might not be as big as Hong Kong or Singapore, however I do believe we can be a significant player in this space. 

At the National Party launch of their first discussion document, it was clear to me that there is still a real focus on primary industry so we still have work to do when it comes to getting some areas of government to shine a spotlight on fintech.

Our InsurTechNZ and WealthTechNZ events were a huge success, the level of engagement and insights from both groups was amazing. Both these parts of the fintech ecosystem are going through significant change and its great to see how technology is automating a lot of the mundane process, however we are still putting human engagement at the forefront of the conversation. Some of this was evident when I attended the Kiwi Fintech Accelerator mid year programme where we heard from a number of the cohort on their journey so far. I’m really looking forward to seeing how these great companies progress over the next few months.

I have been around the country speaking at a number of events from Wellington to Hamilton and back to Auckland, across FinTechNZ and InsurTechNZ. A big thanks goes out to Jannat Maquool for inviting me to be part of the Waikato meet up with over 130 people in the room, the questions kept coming. Also thank you to Richard Klipin and David Bishop for the opportunity to speak at the Financial Services Council (FSC) conference which was a huge success, discussing how to move the claims conversation to one around Health and Wellbeing, very interesting and great to see companies moving towards positive regular interaction rather than just engaging at claim and renewal time.

This week I’ve been presenting at the Singapore Fintech festival roadshow it is very exciting and builds on our visits to Singapore over the last two years, where we have taken 40 New Zealand companies to experience what is now one of the biggest fintech events around the globe. Both the New Zealand and Singapore governments are keen to drive engagement between our countries, helping them to understand regulation and what its like to run your business in either country. As part of our partnership with the Singapore FinTech Association we have some great options should you wish to attend the festival this year.

Next it’s off to Wellington, speaking with Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) on what a fintech policy could look like, more on this later. The rest of the week is filled with member meetings, I am really looking forward to sitting down with James Fuller from Hnry who is going to help automate my invoicing, plus lots of meetings with prospective members. The ecosystem just keeps getting bigger. Then finally “I’m leaving on a jet plane don’t know when I will be back again” as I head to the UK as part of the UK Department for International Trade (UKDIT) joint delegation with FinTech Australia as we attend SIBOS and the Lendit conference. We are being hosted by the Lord Mayor, RBS, Barclays,VISA, Octopus Investments and a sit down with the FCA to discuss a number of things from the Global Financial Innovation Network (GIFN), policy around fintech and the role they played in creating industry standards across Incumbent engagement and AML/CFT.

In the meantime there are a couple of things to watch out for, shortly we will share a document outlining the key points we discussed at the Regulatory Roundtable lunch attended by all the regulators in New Zealand and and Minister Faafoi. Next, our Annual Meeting is coming up and four seats will be up for re-election. So, if you ran before and were not successful, or if you want to have a more hands on approach helping to shape the fintech discussion with all of New Zealand, then get ready to put yourself forward and best of luck!

See you in a few weeks, I will be posting from the UK however I am going to surprise my family so can’t do too much.

James Brown
General Manager
FinTechNZ

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Update from the Chair, Jason Roberts

It has been a busy month with the launch of our new Member Only InsurTechNZ newsletter. If you didn’t receive a copy but think you should have, please let us know! We also held another great InsurTechNZ Connect event focused around ‘ClaimsTech’ hosted by AA, Inno and Crawford. The turnout and discussion was excellent. We look forward to welcoming you at Centrality for the October event ‘Insurtech and the Blockchain’. Last but not least thanks to the FSC for a great collaboration effort at their recent Towards Wellness event where James and I were moderating sessions. Fintech Alley sponsored by MinterEllisonRuddWatts was excellent and congratulations to Plantonix for delivering the winning pitch. 

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Update from the Chair, Rachel Strevens
The recent WealthTech Connect event held last month was attended by 50 people from across the wealth and investment services industry. It was great to hear from the FMA who discussed the requirements for conducting online AML verification and some of the common issues they are seeing across the industry. This was followed by a great panel discussion looking at where the future is heading for online AML. Within WealthTechNZ we continue to address a number of industry specific initiatives, current initiatives we are working on include the standardization of term deposits, the funding gap, and robo/digital advice. If you’d like to learn more or get involved with any of these initiatives please get in contact. The next WealthTech Connect event is scheduled for 23rd October,  we will be looking at digital/robo advice, more details to follow. 

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