Brisbane Is Playing Host To Australia’s First Cashless Cafe
Do you use your credit card or your phone to pay for your morning coffee, or are you still holding on to that pocketful of coins? Sydney-based coffee roastery and cafe chain Pablo & Rusty’s is opening Australia’s first cashless cafe in Brisbane, ditching the notes and coins in favour of credit cards, phone-based payments and even smart coffee cups. With a number of successful locations already opened across Sydney (which do indeed take cash), Pablo & Rusty’s was planning the opening of their Brisbane store when they had the idea to make it entirely cashless. “We were just thinking through some of the logistics of how to manage cash […]
ASIC to build fintech start-ups a ‘regulatory sandbox’ to test ideas
The corporate regulator will allow fintech start-ups to test their ideas with real customers for a period of six months without having to hold a financial services licence, under a new “regulatory sandbox” proposed by Treasurer Scott Morrison in the May budget. In a consultation paper released on Wednesday morning, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said the creation of the sandbox will allow financial services start-ups to attract investment and get to market faster by providing “limited testing and concept validation to occur without businesses needing to comply with all the usual regulatory obligations”. The sandbox was proposed by the federal government as part of its plan to create […]
The ten year gap in financial services technology
In my estimation, technology in traditional financial services lag other industries by about a decade. Having trouble remembering what your online life was like in 2006? Here’s a benchmark: Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone are each more than 10 years old. Sure, the word fintech has been all the rage the past couple of years, but it’s not a good sign when the word “tech” is wrenched into a moniker to explain what the companies involved actually do. We don’t refer to Uber as “taxitech,” just like we don’t think of Airbnb as “hoteltech.” It just works. It’s how we live. I’m not sure who coined the term fintech, but I can confidently say it’s been popularised […]
Quantium buoyed by link-up with Facebook
Data company Quantium has taken what may be its first step towards an eventual float, issuing shares to staff as it unveiled a partnership with Facebook it says will take it closer to the holy grail of accountable advertising expenditure. The deal — the third of its kind the social media giant has inked — enables advertisers to measure the impact their Facebook campaigns have on in-store purchases. Developed over the past six months, it uses common identifiers in social media and credit card data — such as email addresses — to marry advertising views with purchases, according to Quantium’s head of media, Alex Macoun. “It is definitely a major […]
Fintech platform helps brokers tackle business lending
A new online marketplace for business loans can help brokers tackle the growing commercial lending space. Launched in November 2015, Valiant Finance is a comparison website which compares and matches business loans, debtor finance and equipment finance to small businesses. But unlike other comparison websites which largely focus on home loans or personal lending, Valiant co-founder Alex Molloy said it fills a gap in the complex business lending space. “[Small businesses] can go to their business banker – who they might have had three of in the last two years – who will ask them if they have residential security and then say they can’t help them if they don’t,” […]
Turn debts into income
PROFITING from other people’s debts has always been popular way to make money, and investors seeking income are being given more choice than ever before. While interest rates wallow at record lows and are tipped to fall further, a new breed of peer-to-peer — or marketplace — lenders is gaining ground and other income funds are multiplying. Peer-to-peer lending — which removes middlemen such as banks and allows people to lend directly to borrowers via online platforms — is forecast to at least double in size every year for several years to come. RateSetter CEO Daniel Foggo says Australian peer-to-peer platforms funded $50 million of loans last year and that […]
Global regulators attuned to blockchain risks
The use of blockchain in financial services would need to be carefully regulated with access restricted to only approved participants and institutions may be required to use kill switches to stop computers automatically executing in times of stress. Greg Medcraft, who has just relinquished the chair of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), told The Australian Financial Review that blockchains must be able to operate with each other and the financial services companies that use them will have to stand behind the technology in case it fails. Mr Medcraft was commenting on the principles guiding global regulators’ assessment of emerging blockchain technology which have been set out for the […]
Perth start-up wins Silicon Valley comp
Perth bank security start-up BankVault has won its category at the World Cup Tech Challenge in Silicon Valley, beating out a range of start-ups from across the world. Speaking to thewest.com from Silicon Valley after his start-up was announced as the winner in the fintech category, Bankvault founder Graeme Speak said it opened up a world of opportunity. “It’s massive,” Mr Speak said. “We’ve had a lot of introductions to people in Silicon Valley connected with a lot of big money over here. And the win will help us launch internationally.” Bankvault is aiming to prevent online hacking through a banking security solution connecting smartphones and computers to a virtual […]
