Australia's Commonwealth Bank says it took a start-up approach to the development of a new wealth management portal for self-directed investors that combines online banking with stock trading, property and portfolio investment, news and community forums all accessible via a single log-in.
Put together by a small team of inhouse developers from CommBank and CommSec and augmented by new hires, the MyWealth platform was released following nine months of customer centred design research. The bank says the start-up approach and fast time to market was made possible by its $1 billion core system upgrade undertaken over the past five years.
With more than three million self-directed wealth investors in Australia, MyWealth has been designed to make it easy for customers to research and invest in a range of financial products - all with one log-in. The site - available initially only on PC, but with a tablet-style interface - comprises an investment platform, stock market watchlists, hosted social communities, alongside financial news and educational features from a dedicated team of in-house journalists.
Stephen Karpin, executive general manager equities Margin Lending, Commonwealth Bank comments: "We have integrated the key elements of investing from across CommBank and CommSec as well as other media elements such as news and community, in one, always-online destination for investors."
Written in HTML5, the site also has a complementary API that external developers could use to add additional portfolio management tools not provided by the bank. This is set to be made available in a future release once the bank has determined the necessary approval process.