Just hours after CFS officially launched its Edge platform, rivals HUB24 and BT have announced upgrades to their own platform functionalities.
On Tuesday morning after Edge went live, HUB24 announced improvements to its data feeds, while BT announced several upgrades in the works covering its mobile apps, reporting and managed accounts.
HUB24 said its new data feeds and automation capabilities help advisers report on client investments, including cash accounts and term deposits, listed securities, managed funds, direct property and other assets.
Additionally, if an adviser adds other investments into the HUB24 platform, it becomes integrated into the portfolio dashboard, InvestorHUB and HUB24 Present.
Users will also be able to customise the terms used for asset classes, citing ‘listed infrastructure’ versus ‘alternatives’ as an example, which is intended to be able to use consistent language across multiple documents.
Meanwhile, BT announced enhancements to its service request tracker and mobile app, as well as enhanced client reporting that will be rolled out in the coming months.
The mobile app update will be launched in September and will include “Investor Panorama News”, which features product updates and enhancements, year end and process cut off dates, webinars, investor notifications for key dates and new online tools, and service request digital consent enhancements.
The service request tracker will broadened to allow advisers to request digital consent for most forms that are submitted online, which will allow investors to be notified and respond via web or mobile. There are currently 31 forms available for online submission, covering a range of processes from account maintenance to transfers.
BT said the usage of the service request tracker grew by 44 per cent in the six months to June 2023, with 68 per cent of all advice practices on BT Panorama having used the feature.
Panorama will be updated to help support managed accounts with a reporting capability tailored for investment managers, allowing them to access a range of portfolio and business reports directly online, providing greater transparency and oversight.
BT will also introduce a bulk client reporting feature which will create up to 20 reporting groups, develop customised report packs and generate a suite of reports for multiple clients to help advice practices save time.
Other upcoming enhancements include streamlining the existing process to enable direct debits on a linked bank account.
The upgrades from both all three platforms come during a period of market recalibration, as larger institutions pulled out of the market or ceded ground to smaller and specialist players.
The latest Plan For Life data, which covered the end of the March quarter, found Insignia Financial is still the largest platform provider with $198.5 billion in Funds Under Management (down 4.2 per cent over the year).
Insignia is followed by BT ($162.6 billion FUM; down 7.1 per cent) and Colonial First State ($137.4 billion FUM; down 4.5 per cent). Along with AMP, all four had received negative annual growth.
HUB24 has seen the most growth over the year with a 16.5 per cent boost to $59.5 billion FUM, while Netwealth grew 14.4 per cent to 65.9 billion FUM.
Article was updated on 2 August 2023 to remove assertion HUB24 and Netwealth were the only platforms with double digit growth over the year.
