Evidence of fraternisation
Most people in the financial services industry know that there has been long-running but relatively friendly competition between BT Financial Group and Colonial First State as they aspire to world domination in the Australian platforms market.
Any review of the annual Investment Trends and Wealth Insights assessments of the platform market, generally point to BT and CFS being in the upper echelons, and it is well-known that BT’s head of platforms, Kelly Power is actually pretty good mates with CFS’ general manager, products and investments, Peter Chun.
Indeed, as Money Management this week embarks on its Fintech Platforms and Wraps Conference at Royal Pines on the Gold Coast, Outsider is reminded that Power is facing off against CFS’ Sue Wallace in a session which is sure to fire up the competitive juices of the two organisations.
However Outsider wonders what is going on behind the scenes, in circumstances where he ran into Power at the recent Financial Services Council Leaders Summit and noted, along with some of her BT executive colleagues, that she was using equipment supplied by CFS – namely a CFS-branded ballpoint pen.
Such evidence does not actually represent a smoking gun, but it does raise some interesting questions.
AUTHOR
The Outsider
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