Mortgage group’s “mortgage hell” billboard above CBA
Online mortgage startup HashChing is advertising with a billboard above a Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) branch. The home loan marketplace has launched a campaign against the big banks, which includes this billboard in the Melbourne CBD. The slogan reads, “Our brokers will go to mortgage hell, so you don’t have to”. Mandeep Sodhi, CEO of HashChing, said the new billboard made light of the fact that applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing one can be quite an onerous experience. He added, “By positioning this billboard above a CBA branch, we’re encouraging the 80% of borrowers who are currently with a big four bank to find a better […]
ASIC Chair James Shipton wants Australia to lead the world in Regtech
In a speech delivered to an Australian Senate Committee meeting last week, James Shipton, Chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), told the members Australia can lead the way when it comes to Regtech adoption. Australia has a vibrant Fintech ecosystem that has benefited from a fairly supportive government and an active Fintech community. In the future, Regtech will play a very important role in the acceleration of broader Fintech adoption. Shipton says ASIC is encouraging the adoption of regulatory technology (Regtech) solutions in the financial sector. “ASIC believes Australia can position itself as a world leader in the development, and adoption, of Regtech solutions, and we will […]
Virtual currency sales jump in 2018
But results skewed by two big token sales. Virtual currency sales ballooned to US$9.1 billion ($11.9 billion) so far this year, exceeding the US$6.6 billion total for all of 2017, new numbers show. But the monthly trend actually showed a slowdown if the two biggest offerings are excluded. Digital technology startups around the world have raised funds by selling cryptocurrencies, or tokens, that sidestep banks or venture capital firms as intermediaries. Financial technology provider Autonomous NEXT reported the US$9.1 billion figure, noting that the total includes token sale offerings of Telegram, a messaging service founded by Russia-born entrepreneurs Pavel and Nikolai Durov in 2013, and Block.one’s EOS currency. Telegram raised […]
Macquarie slips $20m into Stocard’s mobile wallet
Mobile wallet firm Stocard has landed $20 million from Macquarie Capital, with follow-on financing from original investors Shortcut, Alstin, Rocketship, HTGF and Engelhorn. Stocard co-founder and chief executive Bjorn Goss said the company would use the funds to launch a mobile payment functionality, recruit 40 employees across engineering, sales and marketing, and expand into new markets starting with the opening of its Paris office this week, then Toronto in the coming weeks. “It’s no longer a question that wallets will go mobile; the question is around how to execute the transition with the consumer’s best experience in mind,” he said. “Digital will reshape the shopping process and experience, as mobile […]
Gobbill inks deal with iSignthis for card processing and eKYC
Australian Securities Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange cross listed iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX/FRA:TA8), the world leading RegTech for identity verification and payment services, is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement with an artificial intelligence (AI) fintech bill payment automation startup called Gobbill™. iSignthis is supporting innovative companies like Gobbill by providing global identity verification and payment solutions. The partnership with iSignthis supports Gobbill’s international expansion plans utilising their identity verification services and transactional banking facilities to clear payments. “Partnering with iSignthis is a strategic and important milestone for Gobbill. It enables our customers to pay any bill for billers that do not accept card payments or various card […]
$817M Later: LexisNexis partners with first institutional cryptocurrency exchange
Risk management giant LexisNexis Risk Solutions is now working with the first cryptocurrency exchange to use technology acquired in an $817 million deal earlier this year. The partnership to verify the identities of Melbourne-based Blockbid’s customers also marks the first time LexisNexis has combined its existing database of high-risk individuals with 1.4 billion unique identities brought to the company from ThreatMetrix, which was acquired in a cash deal announced in February. While Blockbid plans to use the two pools of identity data to gather information about its customers during the onboarding process, LexisNexis senior vice president Thomas Brown positions the newly combined products as part of a larger push within the […]
How AI is becoming an asset to the finance industry
As AI transforms an increasing number of domains, players in the finance industry are moving fast to keep pace. While many people are aware of the term artificial intelligence (AI), this is largely in relation to the more extreme use-cases of AI such as flying cars and Sophia the AI robot. Yet, much of our contact of AI – and our understanding of it – revolves around products that affect our everyday lives as consumers. An example of this is within the finance industry. Many key players are leveraging the power of AI to improve their services. Here are three ways AI is disrupting the finance industry: Customer service chatbots […]
DomaCom acquires $100m lending facility
Property crowdfunding firm DomaCom and a number of private lenders have partnered to provide the DomaCom Fund with an initial lending line of $100 million. In a statement, DomaCom chief executive Arthur Naoumidis said the lending facility would allow the company to purchase up to $250 million in property. “We have been seeking a default lending solution for our platform for three years as it is clear that advisers are seeking to use debt to deliver long-term tax effective returns for their clients,” he said. “In addition to the recently announced capacity to being able to crowdfund their own debt, advisers can now simply select the debt level they are […]
