People aged 18-35 need help managing their money but don’t always know where to turn to, according to Ed Maslaveckas, founder and chief executive of Bud – a new financial comparison and education app aimed at millennials launched on 1 July.
A survey conducted on behalf of the Bud, which questioned 422 UK consumers aged between 18 and 35, found that just 12% have sought professional financial advice despite nearly a quarter having used a new financial product.
“It’s not about fintech, it’s about making your money go further. There are so many ways in which fintech could help millennials, if they only knew about it,” he said.
One-stop shop
Referring to Bud as a “Moneysupermarket for millennials”, Maslaveckas said the site aims to cut through the financial jargon and provide a one-stop shop for managing their money including checking their bank balances, paying friends, applying for loans and making investments.
“It’s time for the industry to move away from talking in tech and finance speak, and to start focusing on what they can do for their customers.
“We’ve researched hundreds of fintech products so our customers don’t have to, and we explain what they can do in a language millennials understand,’” he said.
Wealth Management Association (WMA)
The launch comes just a month after UK’s Wealth Management Association (WMA) called on the industry to fund and create an “impartial” financial comparison website to provide unbiased investment information to the millennials.
“If we’re successful then we’ll have a one-stop shop where millennials can go to find information,” said Stephanie Gopalakrisna, head of marketing and corporate communications EMEA for Pershing at the WMA’s annual millennial forum.
Bud’s findings follow that of a report, published by Capgemini Consulting, which found that US millionaires under 40 are proving to be risk-averse as they are less likely to invest in stocks preferring to keep at least a third of their wealth in cash.
