Many people see fintech (financial services technology) as a confusing world of limitless new trends and constantly evolving buzzwords.
Wian Pieterse, Managing Director, Fintech at Legal & General draws on his actuarial background to plot a clear path through it. His analytical, data-focussed approach helps him and his team find and support socially useful businesses working in these core areas:
- Workplace: financial wellbeing, health, payments / neo-banking, and workplace savings
- Home: mortgages, equity, home buying and renting, surveying
- Health: insurance, protection, health technology and later life care
- Wealth: wealth accumulation, retirement, advice, pension tracing, personal investing
Wian and his team also evaluate opportunities against our climate change and broader ESG goals, and look for opportunities to create structured assets that fit our annuity fund requirements. They’ve had a busy year developing our fast-growing portfolio of fast-growing businesses.
Fintech: supporting greener transport
Our investment in electric car subscription service Onto is a good example of our approach. Onto want to make electric cars affordable, flexible and sustainable. The team’s helping them expand in line with growing UK and European demand for affordable green transport, supporting the UK’s move to net zero.
Fintech: delivering financial freedom
Moneyhub is a leading provider of open data and specialist API connections for banking and finance organisations. It lets customers access accurate, real time financial data, helping them analyse their spending and saving habits, and make better financial decisions.
We’re hoping it’ll benefit our own customers too. Our wealth proposition vision for retail customers includes a new consumer app with integrated Moneyhub capabilities. It might suggest where you could boost your savings account by cutting down on treats or luxuries, or offer well-timed reminders to check in on your pension contributions.
Fintech: financing homes for everyone
Generation Home is an innovative mortgage lender. It wants to ‘make everyone a homeowner’. So, it helps first time buyers onto the property ladder by making it easy for friends and family to support them. It’s also cutting mortgage processing times, looking to secure offers for customers 10 days faster than traditional lenders.
A long-term history of future-focused investing
That’s all part of our longer-term history of socially responsible investing in fintech to make a positive difference. For example, our longstanding partner Salary Finance helps employees across the UK avoid costly payday loans by drawing down their pay as they earn it.
Pieterse and his team will keep building on that history as they go into 2023. They’ll work hard to set socially useful businesses up for success as they scale by investing conscientiously and supporting them closely, taking them from “start up” to “scale up” to “grown up”.
