By Nicole Szollos
TELSTRA has pulled the plug on plans to make an entrance into the financial services arena.
The telecommunications giant recently shelved plans to establish a financial services operating platform, called Telstra Financial Management Services (TFMS).
Telstra has been one of the most feared potential competitors for fund managers and master trust providers over the past couple of years, when rumours had been circulating that it was on the verge of unveiling plans to take on distribution. It has a massive customer database and the technology to deliver services to customers.
However, Telstra Online Financial Services general manager Simon Marks-Isaacs says Telstra disbanded the strategy to focus on its core business.
The decision comes after a number of months of development by the Online Financial Services Team to produce a complete offering. Marks-Isaacs says the project had reached the stage of “detailed analysis”. Telstra’s website contained full details of TFMS whenMoney Managementwent to press.
TFMS is an application platform set up in conjunction with software provider Syscorp. TFMS was marketed as an IT administration solution for the investment management sector. The decision to scuttle TFMS is understood to draw the final curtains on Telstra’s online financial services strategy.
While Telstra has pulled the plug on financial services, Singapore’s SingTel is ramping up its push into the financial services market. SingTel’s National Computer Systems (NCS) subsidiary has been in Australia for the past year.
The group is continuing development of its @xpert PrivateWealth, a Web-based enterprise portal software for financial institutions and brokers for delivery of financial planning, asset allocation, product recommendation, portfolio tracking and transactional capability. The product is expected to be up and running in about six months.
