Fintech and support services business The SimplyBiz Group has rebranded as Fintel.
Fintel has been created to “harness the combined strength and reach” of intermediary support business SimplyBiz and UK research, ratings and fintech firm Defaqto.
It wants to expand its role in the sector to help product providers, intermediaries and consumers navigate the world of retail financial services.
Matt Timmins, joint chief executive of Fintel, told International Adviser: “There are two drivers why we did this in the first place. One is, we sit right at the heart of the market, we don’t manufacture products and we don’t give advice.
“Our job is to help the market function better. When we started this, it was all about creating a solid vision for what the future is, inspiring better outcomes in the market and wanting to do that from a real position of strength.
“The second thing is, we acquired Defaqto in 2019. This business has got a huge consumer brand, 80% consumer recognition in that business. We put it under the SimplyBiz Group, a brand that was known for something completely different in the market, and that didn’t feel right.
“We felt, in order to grow our business and our platform in the way that we want to, we needed a name that allowed the brands underneath their own ability to serve their customers in their own way, and really promote those brands.”
Rebrand impact on advisers
Adviser support business SimplyBiz works with over 3,000 intermediary firms, meaning that there are a lot of people that are affected by the changes.
Timmins said: “This rebrand is the start of the journey, it’s not a job done. The advisers will continue to be served by their primary brand. SimplyBiz member firms will be served by SimplyBiz, and Compliance First clients will be served by Compliance First.
“In a sense, nothing will change for the underlying customers, they’ll still buy services from the brand that they like.
“However, what we hope to do through deeper integration of the businesses within Fintel, which are Defaqto and SimplyBiz, is bring in technology and regtech that will shorten the advisers time spent doing more back office work, and improve the compliance and regulatory support of their business to help them do a better job for their clients.”
Compliance
One of the biggest areas of concern for advisers is compliance and regulation.
IA wrote recently that Brexit may pave the way for changes in regulation and Timmins thinks the same, and hopes his firm can be a helping hand for burdened advisers.
“I don’t think we’ve yet seen the extent to what regulatory change is going to be in a post-Brexit era,” he added. “As we come out of the pandemic, and the regulator starts to get to grips with regulation in a post-Brexit world, there will inevitably be quite a lot of change.
“I think more regulatory change on the horizon gives you an ideal opportunity to say, how do you help advisers cope with that change? As an organisation, we want to reach as many people in retail financial services as we can and the only way to do that is through efficient technology.
“We used to compete with businesses like Quilter, Fairstone and Tenet as a membership service business. The way that the market has moved forward, and the way that our strategy has evolved about supporting retail financial services, has meant we collaborate far more than we compete at the moment.
“We have competition in many areas of our business on the point systems that we have. But there isn’t one organisation that competes across the whole spectrum with us. There isn’t anyone else out there, I don’t think, who has a shared vision that we have.
“We want to be a conduit helping retail financial services through tech and regulatory support.”
Acquisitions
Fintel has more growth plans than just a rebrand. Like most of the advice sector, it has M&A ambitions.
“There’s two types of acquisition that really interest us,” said Timmins. “The main one is an acquisition that would add instant customer base to what we do. So largely, that would be one of our competitors in any sphere of our operation.
“The other one would be anything that adds their vital technology component, like a Defaqto business. Those are the kinds of businesses that we’re keen to acquire.”
In terms of SimplyBiz, Fintel does have plans to grow this arm of the business via acquisitions.
Timmins added: “If you look at the businesses that provide support services to directly authorised firms, there are certainly less than 10.
“What we’ve looked to do there is to see whether there’s potential for us to acquire either businesses of material scale or businesses that may be newer to the market that bring in new technology or new ways of working.”
Buyout strategy
In July 2020, SimplyBiz rolled out an exit and acquisition scheme for its member and client firms.
Timmins said that the rebrand does not impact the scheme, and that both ideas were “conceived at around the same time”, and “they go hand in glove together”.
“We have had interest from over 150 firms on the sale side of it, and almost 50 on the buy side,” he added. “You’re looking around one-in-three.
“We know there’s going to be consolidation, there’s going to be movement in the sector and we think helping advisers to grow themselves within and still receive support from SimplyBiz is the best way forward.”
