AUSIEX completes FIIG acquisition, focus on adviser expansion
AUSIEX has completed its acquisition of fixed income provider FIIG Holdings.
The firm has acquired 100 per cent of FIIG’s issued shares, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of AUSIEX and finalising a deal previously announced to the market last month.
Now the deal is complete, AUSIEX said it intends for the firm to “expand the range of products offered and provide services that meet a wider range of needs of institutions, family offices, financial advisers, high-net-worth and wholesale investors”.
As well as this, parent company Nomura Research Institute plans to invest in the development of these new services and actively promote partnerships with external vendors. AUSIEX joined system solutions and consulting services provider, NRI Group, in May 2021.
AUSIEX chief executive, Patrick Salis, said: “With this move, AUSIEX expands beyond exchange-traded instruments listed on ASX and Cboe to now also include over-the-counter domestic and international fixed income products via the FIIG platform.
“It will provide local institutions, financial advisers, family offices, SMSF and HNWIs with one of the most comprehensive investments trading and portfolio administration platform offerings in the country.
“This development is another sign of AUSIEX’s progress towards our long-term plan to become a market utility platform leveraging NRI’s scale and intellectual property. We now look forward to discussing with market participants on how to grow the FIIG offering further through our leading trading platform.”
FIIG has over $5 billion in funds under advice and provides investors with direct access to bond markets and term deposits.
In March, ASIC revealed it was suing FIIG Securities regarding alleged cyber security failures in the lead-up and response to a ransomware-related data breach in May and June of 2023.
“ASIC alleges from March 2019 to 8 June 2023, FIIG failed to take the appropriate steps, as is required by an Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensee, to ensure it had adequate cyber risk management systems in place,” ASIC said in a 13 March press release, referring to documents filed with the Federal Court of Australia.
According to ASIC, it was this lack of preparedness that allowed a Russian ransomware operator to gain access to FIIG’s network between 19 May and 8 June in 2023. This compromise saw the hackers steal 385 gigabytes of data, which the ALPHV ransomware gang published shortly after.
AUTHOR
Laura Dew
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