Malcolm Turnbull unveils new onMarket bidding app targeted at investors

Today Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joined OnMarket BookBuilds CEO Ben Bucknell at the launch of the OnMarket direct bidding app, a free platform that allows you to buy IPOs and placements from your phone, tablet or desktop.

How it works is when you sign up and create an investment profile, you can browse through the offers and apply for shares you like, allowing you to bypass your broker.

At the launch Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull explained that the history of technology and financial services has made price discovery much more efficient and immediate.

“Technology has given much more power in terms of access to information to the mutual investor, whether it’s a self managed super fund with tens of millions of dollars to invest or indeed an individual just investing their savings.”

Turnbull explained that these technologies put pressure on prices, resulting in the financial services sector having to work harder to justify the charges that they make.

OnMarket BookBuilds Ben Bucknell, CEO said that last year only 16% of IPOs were offered to the public. Over the last 5 years there were $66 billion worth of placements and $20 billion worth of IPOs that weren’t broadly offered to eligible investors.

“Why shouldn’t consumers be able to access all the capital that is available to them in Australia? Why shouldn’t each of you and your parents and your self managed super funds be able to bid in on exactly the same terms as the big end of town?” questioned Bucknell.

According to Bucknell, OnMarket is built out of the belief that technology can be used to empower investors, bringing investors to the capital market and the capital market to investors.

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