Former executives with IWL and Sanford Securities have joined forces to roll out a new online share trading and wealth creation platform.
Former Sanford Securities founder Steven Goh and former IWL general manager Lee Muco launched Bell Direct late yesterday - two days after Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) assumed control of IWL.
"Given the IWL and Sanford background, that's where the majority of staff has come from," Bell Direct chief operating officer Muco said.
"Myself and two others are the founding members of the team. It was really about the opportunity to create an independent customer focused and innovation orientated online share broking brand," he said.
"We felt there was a significant opportunity with all the consolidation going on and in the time since we started, ANZ has taken over Etrade and CommBank has...gobbled IWL."
Muco dismissed suggestions the launch of the new online broking service was timed to coincide with the IWL/CBA takeover.
"It's a coincidence. We actually started last year [and] we've been looking at launching across the last few weeks. We're now ready to do so. So it's really a coincidence that the Commbank deal is now finished," he said.
Bell Direct has held a soft trading launch for the past six weeks.
Bell Direct executive chairman Steven Goh said the new online broker will introduce share trades for just $15 without conditions.
"Bell Direct is a non-bank aligned, independent broker offering excellent service delivery and, very importantly, a fantastic experience for the customer," Goh said.
"With Bell Direct, financial planners and accountants will have access to a share trading solution that is not only new, it will also dramatically cut their costs."
Bell Direct has been backed by the Bell Group of companies. Another subsidiary company of the group, Bell Financial, announced earlier this week it intends to list on the Australian Securities Exchange.
