Cash management marketplace Cashwerkz has completed a six-month search for a new chief executive with the appointment of former FIIG and UBS executive Jon Lechte.
The company also reported that its largest shareholder was standing behind it and would ensure the company has adequate capital.
Cashwerkz had a reshuffle last September, when CEO Hector Ortiz was relegated to head of sale and John Nates was appointed executive chair. The company was struggling to realise its ambitious growth targets. Since then it has been looking for a new CEO.
Lechte worked at fixed income broker FIIG Securities between 2008 and 2015, where he was head of markets and a board member. Before that he spent 14 years at UBS where his jobs included head of Asia and Japan for fixed income and debt origination, and head of fixed income for Australia.
He is also a director of MoneyMe, an ASX-listed consumer finance firm.
He will have his work cut out for him at Cashwerkz. Its half-year financial report disclosed that it needed to raise additional funding to be able to meet its commitments.
It lost A$3.6 million during the six months to December, following a loss of $7.3 million in the 2018/19 year.
Net operating cash outflow was $2.8 million. The company has cash and cash equivalents of $2.3 million remaining.
Cashwerkz has $1.08 billion of investor balances on its platform, which are invested in a range of bank term deposit and at-call accounts. More than 4000 investments were made on the platform last year.
The company has had to reassure depositors that their funds would not be at risk if it fails. The money moves from bank to bank without ever being in Cashwerkz's hands.
Things have picked up a little in recent weeks, with news that the company has established a pilot program with Mozo to offer term deposits via the Mozo platform. And it has an agreement to deliver its term deposit and at-call deposit service to the JB Were advisers.
Accompanying the announcement of Lechte's appointment yesterday, the company reported that Adcock Private Equity, its biggest shareholder, "will ensure that the company has adequate capital for its operations during the current period to ensure any uncertainty is removed."
The company is optimistic that its business will benefit from investors' "flight to safety" in the face of extreme market volatility.