ANZ in global banking consortium to digitise trade finance
ANZ Banking Group has joined forces with six global banking giants to create the “Trade Information Network”, which the lenders say will accelerate the digitisation of traditionally paper-based processes to unlock billions of dollars of funding for global exporters. “The network has the potential to transform international trade,” the banks said in a media release issued on Thursday, ahead of its official unveiling at the massive Sibos conference in Sydney on Monday. The other members of the new network are: Banco Santander, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered. The banks want to develop a new industry standard for trade finance, which has been in a challenging period […]
New ‘sandbox’ to help fintechs compete for real-time payments
Start-ups seeking to develop services for the new, real-time payments system will be able to test their capabilities via a new “sandbox” created by its governing body NPP Australia and Swift, the network of global banks that helped build the infrastructure. The new test environment – which will allow connections with the “new payments platform” (NPP) via “application programming interfaces” (APIs) – comes after criticism from the Productivity Commission in August that access to the big bank-built system is inadequate. To encourage more competition, NPP Australia introduced a new “NPP API Framework” earlier this month. Its CEO, Adrian Lovney, said the NPP has been designed to be inclusive and “open […]
Gobbling up your bills one at a time: how startup Gobbill is automating bill payment through AI
So, here’s an idea: imagine a digital financial assistant powered by artificial intelligence that digitises your bills and schedule payments, all whilst checking for fraud. Pretty cool, right? That’s what Gobbill, a fintech startup that automates bill payments for small businesses and households does. But that’s not all. Shendon Ewans, CEO and Co-Founder of Gobbill, says, “You can link any Australian bank account, and it will debit that account, so you don’t have to tell every biller your bank account details. Essentially, the product allows you to centralise your direct debits in one place.” In addition, the ability to pay your bills in cryptocurrency will be coming soon thanks to […]
AFL great says Hayne will help robo-advice make mark
The findings of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry could play into the hands of robo-advice, reckons Ted Richards, the former AFL great turned director at Australian robo-advice platform Six Park Asset Management. “The royal commission has been sad for certain parts of Australia, but a fantastic opportunity as well,” the former Essendon Bombers and Sydney Swans player says. “We’ve been able to receive a lot of attention off the back of the (Hayne) inquiry.” Richards expects Commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s report and its ramifications to upset the traditional advice delivery model. “Robo-advice really grew in the US on the back of the financial […]
Myprosperity, a ‘Xero for household finance’, examines royal commission opportunity
It styles itself as “Xero for household finance” and Melbourne start-up myprosperity now looks more like the Kiwi original, after an adviser to early Xero investor Craig Winkler and a former Xero chief executive joined its board as it hopes for a boost from the banking royal commission. Myprosperity’s subscription service allows financial advisers to get real-time information on their clients by aggregating data feeds from their bank, mortgage provider or landlord, vehicle financier, insurers and investment platforms. Currently used by 650 advisers, who pay $15 per month per client household, founder Peter McCarthy said the royal commission was leading to more enquiries. “The royal commission has emphasised that financial planning has been all about product instead of outcomes,” […]
What is Ethereum and who is Vitalik Buterin?
Beginnings of the Ethereum Universe Launched on 30th July 2015, Ethereum is a cryptocurrency based on the blockchain. Founded by Vitalik Buterin and Joseph Lubin, it is sometimes considered a second version of Bitcoin. Though Bitcoin and Ethereum are both decentralised currencies based blockchain, there are significant differences between the two. What’s the difference? A good way to understand the differences between the two is to recognise that each have their own goals and purpose. While Bitcoin was and still intends to be a digital currency based on the blockchain, Ethereum has sought to create an entire network within itself. In fact, each Ether can be designed to represent a […]
No more updating card details: Visa rolls out tokens online
New digital payments technology from Visa is set to significantly reduce ecommerce fraud, while removing a major consumer pain point – updating your details online every time you get a new card. The technology, called credential-on-file (COF) tokenisation, means that card details such as the 16-digit account numbers and expiry dates will no longer be stored online when consumers make a purchase. Instead, COF removes sensitive information from merchants’ systems and replaces it with a token, which is meaningless if stolen by fraudsters. Visa’s head of digital product and partnerships for Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific, Matt Wood, told The Australian Financial Review the tokens would be linked […]
The peril and promise of open banking
By Trade Ledger’s Martin McCann It seems an age since then-Treasurer Scott Morrison called on the open banking sector to not “stuff it up” at the annual FinTech Awards shortly before he became Prime Minister. Now the music has stopped and we have a PM who has proven he is not a luddite. But what concerns me, and I suspect the sector as a whole, is that the federal government could be in the process of doing just that – stuffing it up – by not following world’s best practice in the implementation of open banking. Open banking has the potential to revolutionise the Australian financial landscape – which is […]
