Astute celebrates 15th birthday with client appreciation

Jacques Rossouw, Managing Director, Astute.

Pierre Dippenaar (Atwork), Willie Snyman (Astute), Johan Marsden (PPS), Trevor Stacey (Atwork).

Silvan Moodley and Dean Benn from Sanlam Sky.

Sibongile Mdluli (FPI) Willie Snyman (Astute), Mandisa Magwaza (FPI), Noma Tyhutyhani (FPI).

Astute team: Tamaryn Meyers, Willie Snyman, Busi Musimanyana.

Dean Benn (Sanlam Sky), Jacob Sibeka (Hollard), Jacques Rossouw (Astute), Silvan Moodley (Sanlam Sky).

Jacques Rossouw (Astute), Karen Schwegmann (Liberty Life), Laurence Balcombe (Clientele Life).

Jacques Rossouw (Astute), John Marsden (PPS).

In the spirit of partnership and long-standing client relationships, on the 18th and 19th of November The Financial Services Exchange (Pty) Ltd – T/A ASTUTE again celebrated its 15th birthday with two stylish client appreciation events at Leriba Lodge in Centurion and the Southern Sun Hotel in Hyde Park respectively.

In April 2000, trading as Astute, the Financial Services Exchange (Pty) Ltd was launched. Astute has since become renown for reputable technology that provides data exchange services to financial services companies and intermediaries. 

Attended by Astute’s key clients and partners including Liberty Life, Sanlam, PPS, Hollard, Discovery, MMI, STRIDE, OUTsurance, FNB, Linktank, AtWork, ASISA, FIA, FPI, the Department of Home Affairs and various top level brokers, the event kicked off with Astute’s General Manager Willie Snyman welcoming guests and introducing a formal address from Managing Director Jacques Rossouw.

Jacques says, “We’re in an exciting position as a brand. Although we trade under our registered name of The Financial Services Exchange, our brand Astute has become a verb in the industry. Clients often refer to ‘doing an Astute’ when conducting a financial needs and detail analysis – similar to how the world refers to ‘Googling’ when using a search engine. Elevating our pedigree is our close alignment with short-term insurance switch Stride and the imminent announcement of a short term industry switch ownership which will position us to operate in the short term insurance space by early 2016.” Rossouw believes that the new industry buzzword is disruption. “We see ourselves as playing a key role in assisting the industry of making sense of tech disruption taking place.”

He explains that in the last year the he has noticed some iconic numbers. “Firstly, the number 18. I have been with the company for 18 months and in that time we have made numerous positive changes, which wouldn’t have been possible without our exceptional team. The second number is 15 – we’re celebrating our 15th birthday, demonstrating the credibility we’ve earned. We have not only sustained our business over the last 15 years, but have grown during economic downturn. That’s how I know we’ve got something special.”

Jacques described how the third significant number was 52, representing the number of content providers the company integrates with, while Astute has 133 integration points and 24 000 registered Financial Service Providers transacting on the switch. “Another pertinent number for us in 2015 was 1 million. We made it into the Guinness Book of Records for packing food for 1 million unfed children and lastly, we’ve touched more than 3.8 million individual profiles to date this year. That’s more than the number of people who have submitted their tax return!

Astute has clear strategies around not only short term insurance but incorporating employee benefits and investments into our platforms in the future. In terms of fraud – Astute’s Verification of Personal Details (VOPD) product has been this year’s success story. As a result of the VOPD success, in the last quarter ASISA has asked us to chair the industry Risk Mitigation Committee. This is a massive opportunity to not only bring commercial entities to our switch, but to provide a centralised initiative to prevent industry fraud” he adds.

According to Jacques, ultimately the company’s mission is to empower the financial services industry while expanding its 2020 vision. “Our primary strategy is the ‘single view of the person’, collating as much information on our platform as possible to enable the industry to serve its customers through the enablement of the person’s data, while empowering the broker and advisor community to give the best advice through a consolidated view.

Thank you to all our partners and customers for your trust in us. We look forward to having you beside us for the exciting journey ahead.” Jacques closed his address with the German proverb, “What’s the use of running, if you’re not on the right road”. “We believe that we have aligned ourselves on the right road, and we’re now able to run,” he concludes.