CBA segments online investors base
Commonwealth Bank is using its technology to segment and streamline its online investment offerings.Last November, the bank established a new business unit called CommSec Adviser Services, which is aimed at financial intermediaries. The aim of the business is to provide financial planners accessing their clients' accounts with a single point of contact for trading, margin lending, cash and debt management, and portfolio administration.Two established businesses - Core Equity Services and Colonial Geared Investments - were combined to create CommSec Adviser Services.Yesterday's product launch, MyWealth, is pitched at self-directed but relatively unsophisticated investors. It gives them access to their cash and investment accounts, a simple approach to investing, access to a community of investors and a financial news and market update service.The MyWealth community will connect through forums, chat rooms and webinars.The bank estimates there are three million Australians in this category and the number is growing.Commonwealth Bank's executive general manager for equities and margin lending, Stephen Karpin, said investors would find it easier to get started in MyWealth than they might have in CommSec, which has a lot of inactive customers."Customers who start with MyWealth may move to CommSec as their interest in investing deepens," he said."Our plan is for CommSec to remain the number one share site."As a result of these developments, CBA has a service for investors whose affairs are handled by an adviser; a service for novice self-directed investors; and a service for more experienced investors. Each of them offers a bundle of services accessible with a single log-on.MyWealth will pay dividends for the bank if it can encourage the large number of inactive CommSec customers to migrate to the new, easier-to-use and friendlier platform, and do more investing online.Karpin said that future developments would include a MyWealth offer for self-managed super fund trustees and the incorporation of property investment into the system.