Ebix Australia has started its push into the local life insurance market with the purchase of back-office provider Fintechnix.

The company provides web-based straight-through processing for life insurance and wealth management organisations.

Ebix MD Leon d’Apice told insuranceNEWS.com.au the Fintechnix acquisition gives the company a distribution foothold in the Australian life market.

The company already dominates web-based processing in the Australian general insurance market through the Sunrise Exchange platform.

“The main reason behind the Fintechnix purchase was a lateral growth strategy for the company,” he said. “We have moved into the life market in the US and we see some products that will be suitable for the local market.”

Mr d’Apice says rather than create a new business locally from scratch, it was easier to buy an organisation that already had market penetration.

“Fintechnix is a family-owned Australian company and when we looked at it we saw it had a good product and organisation,” he said.

“It had complementary solutions to our general insurance business, but we also see good growth opportunities for the business both here and overseas – especially in Asia.”

Fintechnix’s OneOffice platform merges back-office operations with the front-office functions. It provides secure web-based access to advisers, third-party sales functions, clients and reinsurers.

The Fintechnix team, including founder and MD John Groves, will stay with the business.

“They will help us develop products into new markets and I look forward to working with the team,” Mr d’Apice said.

Mr Groves says Ebix’s commitment to straight-through processing was a major reason for joining the organisation.

“We look to leverage each other’s abilities to take a market leadership role in the Australian insurance markets.”

Mr d’Apice did not disclose the purchase price, only saying it was a cash deal funded internally and no Ebix shares were offered as part of the transaction.

“Ebix expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to our earnings per share,” he said.