Securities Trade is Going into Consumers’ Hands, Says Startup CEO

Hillel Raz, founder of Israeli fintech startup BondIT Ltd., said that when it comes to securities, Israeli fintech shines. “A major component of Israel’s success in fintech is the Israeli ‘Chutzpah’ and ability to think outside the box,” Mr. Raz said. “We are doing it with securities. Israel is very innovative in this field.”

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Mr. Raz spoke on Tuesday at the FinTech 2018 conference held in Tel Aviv by Calcalist, Bank Leumi, and KPMG.

According to Mr. Raz, in the 80s, FOREX trading was a new field, and today it is widely available. “We believe it will happen to securities,” he said, adding that while his company is servicing the institutional market, in the future it aims to help private investors build a securities portfolio.

Established in 2012, BondIT develops machine learning-based analytics and automation tools for the fixed income global market. In 2017, BondIT received a $14.25 million investment from Shanghai-based conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. Also speaking at Tuesday’s conference, Pavel Krbec, head of online at Home Credit Group, said he believes data is the new oil. Mr. Krbec spoke on a panel on global banks’ perspective on the Israeli fintech ecosystem.

“We are looking for companies able to distill knowledge from data,” Mr. Krbec said. “We are looking for the smart algorithms or smart modules that can distill the knowledge and allow us faster and better underwriting of loans, or a better recommendation engine inside the bank.”