Finsia aims to renew its membership base with a new portal

A 12-month investment in the digitisation of its operations came to fruition earlier this month when the Financial Services Institute of Australia launched a new member portal that will deliver the Institute's services in a social media environment and, hopefully, bolster its flagging membership.

The portal is a bit like a private LinkedIn, where Finsia members can load their career details, track their professional development, arrange mentoring, collaborate with their peers, keep up to date with industry events, do some networking and gain access to information about career development and industry trends.

Finsia chief executive Russell Thomas said the portal would give members the benefits of a social media environment, as well as the benefits that a professional association could provide, such as career validation.

He said the portal would also encourage member participation. "Other professional bodies take the view that career development is about providing services. What has always made Finsia different is our view that the best professional development is about contributing back into the industry through training, mentoring, doing research or working on policy. This portal will allow us to get to know our members a lot better."

Thomas said Finsia was not moving away from its role of providing face-to-face member events. "We do a hundred events a year and we will still do that. But the portal allows us to enhance that by using member information to arrange networking events for smaller groups. We know better who our members want to meet and we can put them together," he said.

Education also remains at the core of Finsia's service. Last December it entered into a partnership with Macquarie University's Applied Finance Centre to develop a new course - a graduate certificate of finance. The program will be offered to graduates with any degree who are seeking a career in financial services.

Finsia was heavily involved in the design of the course, which Macquarie will deliver. Thomas said Finsia was working with other tertiary institutions to develop industry training programs.

One consequence of the Macquarie deal is that Finsia's preferred provider relationship with the postgraduate education company Kaplan Professional, which bought Finsia's training operation in 2007, has ended.

Finsia has high hopes for its new portal. The institute has been running up deficits for a number of years and aims to commercialise the portal. And it is hoping that the social media environment in which it will deliver more of its services will attract a younger group of members.

Finsia's 2014 annual report shows that its revenue was A$4.5 million and its expenses from operating activities were $8.3 million. The Institute lost $2.6 million. It has suffered a string of losses in recent years, with the biggest being $4 million in 2010.

It has been working hard to cut its costs, including a big headcount reduction last year, but it needs to generate revenue.

Thomas said the plan to commercialise the portal included opening it up to advertisers and recruiters.

Finsia's biggest source of revenue is membership fees, which fell by around nine per cent last year and by about the same amount in 2013. Membership fee revenue has dropped from $4.7 million in 2012 to $3.8 million last year.

Thomas said membership renewal rates were running at around 90 per cent but conceded that the institute had an ageing membership and needed to attract young members.

"That is why we are going digital. It is about being relevant to the next generation," he said.

Finsia has been working closely with industry on the re-shaping of its service delivery. Eighteen months ago it set up four industry councils - institutional markets, funds and asset management, retail and business banking and financial advice - to advise on its programs, professional standards and policy work.

"What we are developing is in tandem with what institutions are doing in the area of staff development," Thomas said.