Changing of the guard at FinTech Australia as industry faces tough challenges
Lobby group FinTech Australia has a new chairman and relatively new CEO, a refreshed leadership team to represent its 243 fintech start-up members in the corridors of political power. At its annual general meeting last Wednesday, Alan Tsen was elected new chairman of the group, which was founded in 2016 to help drive pro-competition, technology policy, such as the government’s open banking regime. A former corporate lawyer, Tsen has his finger on the pulse, given his day job is general manager of Stone & Chalk’s new operations in Melbourne. The hub is backed by 24 corporate partners including the Melbourne-based major banks ANZ Banking Group and National Australia Bank. Tsen […]
Bitcoin futures could be hurting bitcoin’s price
A Wall Street analyst known for his bullish stance on bitcoin has flagged the possibility that bitcoin futures contracts could be hurting the cryptocurrency’s price. Bloomberg reports that Tom Lee, the cofounder of the research firm Fundstrat, said in a note last week that bitcoin futures contracts could be behind bitcoin’s recent “gut-wrenching” price declines. Lee said in his report that there was “significant volatility” in bitcoin’s price around the expiration date of CME Group and Cboe futures contracts. Both CME Group and Cboe launched bitcoin futures products in December, when bitcoin was trading close to record highs of about $US20,000. Bitcoin has tumbled since then. Bitcoin was down 0.35% […]
Loyalty survey finds millennials more keen for crypto than loyalty points
The sixth annual ‘For Love or Money’ study revealed that Millennial consumers are more interested in cryptocurrency than loyalty points. Commissioned by The Point of Loyalty, this year’s instalment of the report found that 36% of loyalty program members would rather be rewarded in cryptocurrency over traditional points systems. This sentiment was represented even stronger among Millennial consumers, with over half (55%) expressing their enthusiasm for blockchain technology to replace conventional reward systems. “With cryptocurency being a topic of intense conversation these days, I was keen to understand consumers’ and specifically loyalty program members’ attitude towards being rewarded in these digital currencies,” says CEO of The Point of Loyalty, Adam […]
Britain’s Intelliflo expanding to Australia to take on IRESS
Britain-based wealth management software company Intelliflo is expanding to Australia and intends to aggressively pursue incumbent player IRESS’ customer base and dismantle the $2 billion company’s monopoly in Australia. Intelliflo, which is led by Australian Hamish Purdey, was recently acquired by global investment management company Invesco for an undisclosed sum, giving the business the resources to expand internationally. Intelliflo will continue to operate independently under its own brand as a wholly owned subsidiary of Invesco. “We’ve already had inbound inquiries from Australian businesses, as we have from other international companies too, who have seen us from afar and are keen to sponsor our entry to the market,” Mr Purdey said. […]
Automated advice to help Australians’ money grow
Cotton farmer George Stacey grows crops for a living and he’s also focused on watching his finances flourish. A long way from the hustle and bustle of city life, the 24-year-old works on a 97,000 hectare farm in Goondiwindi, 300km southwest of Brisbane, and said he loves investing in companies all over the world “from my couch in remote western Queensland.” Following in his father’s footsteps of investing, Mr Stacey said “ever since I was a young kid when the finance news would come I had a bit of an interest in it and my dad invested in a share portfolio”. “When I went out west and I started to […]
Fintechs tell Labor a credit report delay will entrench bank power
Labor’s push to delay a law requiring the major banks to put more customer data into credit reports will entrench the big four’s market dominance and keep the cost of personal loans unnecessarily high, five of the nation’s leading marketplace lenders have said. In a letter to shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, the CEOs of SocietyOne, RateSetter, MoneyPlace, Harmoney and WISR said a further delay to mandating big bank participation in the ‘comprehensive credit reporting’ (CCR) regime will “continue to entrench a fundamental competitive imbalance between the big four and other lenders”. The letter is a response to Mr Bowen’s move last week to call for a delay to CCR by […]
Alibaba moves to transform Australian fintech
Alibaba Group’s innovative facial recognition, artificial intelligence and data analytics technology is coming to Australia’s financial services sector, under a partnership with local technology group TAS. The landmark deal between TAS and Alibaba’s cloud computing arm, Alibaba Cloud, will provide Australian businesses with the opportunity to access cutting edge cloud computing and data centre services. TAS and Alibaba will also develop a joint innovation centre in Australia under the deal, to develop and tailor new technologies and services for the Australian market. TAS has been providing technology solutions in Australia’s financial sector for nearly three decades, servicing about 60 institutions with cloud solutions for internet and mobile banking, internal systems […]
Bitcoin’s collapse is raising suspicions about price manipulation
Bitcoin extended losses, bringing its four-session slide to as much as 20 per cent, as questions mount about whether the world’s biggest cryptocurrency was manipulated during last year’s record price surge. After rallying more than 1,400 per cent in 2017 amid an investor frenzy for digital assets, Bitcoin is down almost 70 per cent to around $US6,325 as of 2:52 a.m. in New York, from its record high of $US19,511 set in December. It traded at a few cents after being launched in 2009. “Things have changed for Bitcoin and the crypto space,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at online trading firm Oanda Corp. in London. “There doesn’t seem […]
