Cashwerkz Limited (ASX:CWZ) Director, John Nantes talks about the company's platform, which allows easy access to cash and term deposits from over 40 banks and credit unions.
Jessica Amir: Thanks for your company. I'm Jessica Amir for the Finance News Network. With me today for an update from Cashwerkz
(ASX:CWZ) is director John Nantes. John, welcome back.
John Nantes: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Jessica Amir: So for those who are unfamiliar, Cashwerkz
(ASX:CWZ) is a platform that essentially connects investors with cash rates and term deposit rates. Just give us a little bit more of an introduction.
John Nantes: Cashwerkz, CWZ, recently merged with Trustees Australia. Trustees Australia
(ASX:TAU) had been around 31 years managing cash for people. It's a very trusted brand and it's a safe pair of hands. But they were doing it manually. So we took their manual process and our technology and merged them into the company that we are today, which is taking on the whole market. It's early days but we've had $2 billion already pass through our platform.
What Cashwerkz has done is brought the banks closer together with the investors online in one place where you can see pretty much the whole marketplace. And within three clicks move your money from your bank account to your new term deposit, or at call account in a faster better way than has ever been designed in Australia before.
Jessica Amir: So, John, how does your platform and product essentially compare to other rate comparison sites that are around, for example, Finder?
John Nantes: Yeah. So, there's a key difference. One is we do allow you to compare and view the whole market. But we actually also allow you to execute and move your money. So we're not just a compare the market solution. We're actually a once stop shop execution service. Now the whether you're investing your money yourself or whether you're an advisor or a fund manager or someone who operates in the financial services on behalf of other people. You can use our technology to solve that problem as well.
Jessica Amir: Just walk us through the application process.
John Nantes: The very first thing you do is become identified, which means we're looking through to understand who you are and knowing you as a client. Now, the 43 banks that use our platform accept our way of doing that. We do that based on their criteria. As far as we can work out we're the only ones in the market that the banks accept our way of identifying clients for them.
The second thing you then do have been identified is select what kind of investment you want across the whole market because we provide access to one month out to five years. Either as a term deposit or an at cost solution, which means you're really in control of how you want to invest your money and how often.
The other part I would say is that once you're identified on our platform you never have to do that again. Meaning, identified once you then can shop 43 banks forever.
Jessica Amir: So why is a solution like yours so critical to the market?
John Nantes: Right now it's more critical than it’s ever been. On the back of the Royal Commission that said we're not doing a good enough job looking after people with money and acting in their best interest. Cashwerkz actually solves that problem for all advisors in terms of their ability to work across the market and do the right thing by the client.
The second thing that Cashwerkz is solving is the biggest problem that's come up more recently and that is 40 per cent of Australians actually have term deposits below 2 per cent. That's about 1 per cent less than what they should have. That is a huge part of the market. Cashwerkz solves that problem. It allows you to compare the market, execute, and increase your outcome by 1 per cent. Which over time is a big number to mum and dad, to retirees, to people who are really counting on this money in a low interest rate environment.
Jessica Amir: And John, just on the technology, just tell us about your features and how your product is essentially so unique.
John Nantes: One of the most unique parts of us is the way we identify our clients means that they're identified once and forever they can do business with the banks. That's a very unique proposition, and save clients a lot of time and money and effort. The second thing is we offer transparency and choice. Meaning, you can scan the market and see over 43 ADIs from one month out to five years and make a decision that actually is in your best interest. The third thing that the platform has been able to do is integrate with financial services businesses. Meaning, we're not a platform that makes everybody change the way they do business for their clients, we actually integrate with the way they do business. That's a big game changer, especially for financial services companies that are trying to help people and do so in the most economically and smart way.
Jessica Amir: And John, what else can you tell us about the platform? Perhaps you'd like to cover the key metrics.
John Nantes: We think this isn't just an Australian problem that we've solved. We think it's a global problem.
One of the unique propositions we offer is that we don't touch the money. What that's lead to is platform providers like Praemium
(ASX:PPS) who we recently announced a relationship with are using Cashwerkz to solve for their cash and fixed interest solutions. So whether it's a platform provider, a dealer group, mum and dad investors, retirees, a self-managed super fund we want to be the choice of cash and fixed interest investing in this country, and then even globally.
Jessica Amir: Wonderful. Just lastly, John, before we let you go what's your outlook for the second half?
John Nantes: I think we'll be adding more banks and more products which will allow the users of our platform to have even more choice than what they have now. That means making better decisions and getting a better rate of return on their investments. As part of that I think we'll do more deals with current platform providers. We recently announced Praemium
(ASX:PPS) as an example of that who are a very serious player in financial services. I think we'll continue to do more of that.
Recently we saw our share price go up on the back of all the good news that we're putting forward. I want us to continue to do that, and I expect the share price to continue to go up as a result of the good work we're doing.
Jessica Amir: Brilliant. John Nantes, thank you so much for the update, and congratulations on the collaboration with Praemium
(ASX:PPS).
John Nantes: Great. Thank you.
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