Money for nothing, cheques for free in the sharing economy
THE bank of mum and dad is receiving a welcome cash injection as a growing number of households put a price on the things they previously gave away for free. More households are renting out a spare room, car sharing, selling goods and services and even lending to each other as the “sharing economy’’ expands, research shows. According to polling by RateSetter, some households are earning up to $120 a month. On the downside, however, all those people who benefited from the “free economy” are now having to wait their turn, or pay for it. Free rides, spare rooms, and even the kids’ old books and toys are increasingly thin […]
P2P lifts in popularity amid miserable year for banks
With deposit rates at low levels and the local share market still choppy, peer-to-peer lending has become an interesting alternative for Australian investors over the last few years. But some cracks in the model appeared in the US recently when one of the biggest peer-to-peer platforms was caught up in a scandal that it is now scrambling to fix, offering a warning for the Australian industry about the importance of transparency. LendingClub had been seen as one of the leading lights of this space in the US, amid a range of players that use technology to match investors with borrowers, cutting out the overheads incurred by banks and aiming to […]
Kerry Agiasotis of WUBS: Win-win when rivals turn partners
One of the world’s largest non-bank providers of international business payment solutions says aspiring fintech companies should seek to pursue partnerships with their big company rivals rather than fighting them if they want their ideas to reach their full potential. The chief executive of Western Union Business Solutions, the dedicated business payments unit of the New York Stock Exchange-listed Western Union Company, said the firm was increasingly looking to partner with fintechs and other start-ups. WUBS is primary spot foreign currency trading provider to 20 per cent of the SME market in Australia and secondary provider to another 20 per cent, including the big four banks. It has more than […]
The fintechs targeting SMEs
Fintech companies have increasingly started targeting SMEs looking for ways to finance their businesses, but fintechs shouldn’t expect a revolution without a few setbacks. At least, that’s the view of some of the industry’s own experts and participants. With the market having had a few years to run its course, digital lenders, payment platforms and other financial technology firms have been given a warning: change, or face extinction. The changing face of fintech In lieu of more banking alternatives, fintech companies have increasingly started targeting more specific niches. It’s these businesses – not just those offering simple loans – that will end up surviving a glut of entrants, experts say. […]
Australia among first to introduce bitcoin regulations
Australia will be one of the first countries to impose regulations for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies under anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism laws. Australia’s financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, is co-hosting a counter-terrorism financing summit with in Bali and, ahead of this, has highlighted that ecurrency such as bitcoin enables terrorists to transfer money anonymously. Justice Minister Michael Keenan said: “The report recommends strengthening an already robust legal framework to respond to new and emerging threats.” “The government is committed to facilitating growth and innovation in this sector and appropriate anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regulation will aid that development.” The AUSTRAC report, Terrorism Financing in Australia 2014, said: “Terrorist groups engaged […]
Apple says Australia’s banks pose a security threat to iPhones
Apple has launched a blistering attack on three of Australia’s big banks, saying their request to collectively negotiate over digital wallet access to the iPhone will compromise the handset’s security, reduce innovation and blunt Apple’s entry into the payments market in Australia. In a sign of growing acrimony between the world’s largest company and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Corp, Apple told the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that “allowing the banks to form a cartel to collectively dictate terms to new business models and services would set a troubling precedent and delay the introduction of new, potentially disruptive technologies”. The three large banks […]
Fintech needs security baked in from the start
Fintech has been labelled a modern day gold rush fuelled by ambitious entrepreneurs and innovative technologies and consumer demand. KPMG and CB Insights’ “The Pulse of Fintech”report found that global investment in fintech currently sits at $13.8 billion with $4.5bn invested in the Asia-Pacific, across 140 deals. But as the relationship between new technologies, such as bitcoin and blockchain, and financial services deepens, so do the threats posed by increasingly sophisticated hackers. No market is more affected by cybercrime than financial services. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2016 Global Economic Crime Survey found that 48 per cent of financial sector respondents reported to have been affected by cybercrime, compared with 36 per cent across […]
VentureCrowd stakes its claim as alternative investment option
Local equity-based crowd-funding platform VentureCrowd and residential property developer Clearstate have closed a second funding round, giving more than 50 investors 49 per cent equity of a development site in western Sydney. VentureCrowd’s crowd-funding platform allows investors to buy equity of a property development before it’s subdivided and sold, and former Credit Suisse adviser Mitchell Hopwood said he invested through his self-managed superannuation portfolio as an alternative to a listed property fund. “The Austral opportunity provided a relatively high, short-term return in a bite-size, easily understandable transaction that is fairly de-risked from an investment perspective,” he said. Mr Hopwood said the crowd-funding platform, believed to be the first of its […]
