Australian FinTech: Worth its weight in gold

By Senator the Hon. Jane Hume

One of the most remarkable things about the COVID pandemic is how investors rushed to listed technology equities as panic struck global markets.

Whereas gold has traditionally dominated as a safe haven asset class, the tech buy-up was a striking acknowledgment of digitisation’s inexorable march.

Pandemic or not, in today’s marketplace, disruption is the only constant. The race to become a globally competitive digital economy has never been more hotly contested.

Australia has a stellar reputation as a safe haven assets leader – the world’s first exchange-traded gold commodity, the world’s safest bonds, a steadfast currency. Technology will be no exception.

As the Australian FinTech sector’s first minister, I’ve been struck by how the ecosystem has continued to grow over the past year in what has been a very difficult year for scaling businesses across the economy.

For FinTechs, the headline hurdles during the pandemic were extraordinary. Skittish capital markets. Falling consumer spending and a sharp increase in the discretionary savings rate. Corporate spending reallocated to crisis management. Global labour mobility at a standstill. Stalled interaction with offshore investors and customers. The list goes on.

It’s a real testament to the agility of Australia’s FinTech businesses that their revenue base has held firm, as the recent EY FinTech Australia Census has displayed.

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Source: Australian FinTech: Worth its weight in gold – InnovationAus