New Zealand’s pioneering fintech conference has lined up over 15 presenters for the follow-up to its hugely successful inaugural 2016 event.
Headliners for the 2017 Finnotec, convened by Binu Paul, founder of online KiwiSaver comparison tool, SavvyKiwi, include Hong Kong-based tech investor, Peter Dingle, and Wellington’s own Kendall Flutey, head of award-winning financial education business, Banqer.
Dingle, director of venture investment firm Nest Innovation Accelerators, has helped raise a collective US$50 million or so across 75 start-ups during his career.
Launched by Flutey in 2014 to offer online financial education programs in schools, Banqer has won a number of awards and recently expanded into Australia in a deal with investment platform, Netwealth.
Paul said the Finnotec 2017 conference, to be held at Auckland’s Langham Hotel on November 3, would also feature speakers from fintech start-ups as well as established firms, regulators, legal and government representatives. This year there is a push to have more international speakers on board to provide a more global perspective including from US, Australia, UK, Singapore, Asia and Latin America.
“Finnotec is aimed at bringing together a diverse range of speakers with an interest in the rapidly-evolving fintech sector who are able to spark debate and provide practical insights to a NZ audience,” he said.
Last year’s event hosted at the Hilton Hotel, the first formal fintech conference specifically tailored for the NZ industry, sold out well before kick-off prompting a change of venue in 2017 to the larger Langham.
Despite the increased capacity Paul said Finnotec tickets would still be limited with expressions of interest already exceeding expectations.
He said the 98 per cent approval rating for the 2016 event was due to his “relentless focus on showcasing new speakers and new content”.
With about three months to go he said Finnotec had already garnered interest from over a 100 attendees – a notable feat in the highly-competitive conference market.
“We were surprised last year at the overwhelming demand for conference tickets – in fact we had to turn people away,” he said. “But fintech has truly hit the mainstream now and how it develops is of vital interest to everyone in the financial services industry.”
According to Paul, consumers, providers and regulators are all grappling with the potentially revolutionary effect of technology across a wide range of financial matters.
Finnotec has secured FMA chief, Rob Everett and Commerce Minister, Jacqui Dean, to explain the approach of the NZ regulator and government respectively to fintech.
Other confirmed Finnotec speakers include Perpetual Guardian chief, Andrew Barnes and Richard Dellabarca, head of the NZ Venture Investment Fund.
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