Fractional investing company BrickX adds Adelaide to its portfolio
BUYING pieces of a property — rather than an entire house — is gaining traction as Australians seek fresh ways to enter the increasingly expensive real estate market. Fractional investing company BrickX this week launches its first property in Adelaide — its first purchase outside the big cities of Sydney and Melbourne — and plans to buy in Brisbane and Hobart within the next 12 months. But BrickX’s platform — which divides a residential property into 10,000 units or “bricks” for buyers to share in its growth and expenses — is not only appealing to a traditional investment crowd. More than half of the 6500 users it has attracted since […]
Industry newcomer, Huddle, tackling insurance fraud with Australian-first technology
Insurance industry newcomer, Huddle, is taking significant steps to tackle fraud within the sector while dramatically increasing the speed at which claims are approved and paid. The Insurance Council of Australia currently estimates the cost of fraud is up to $2bn per year – most of which gets passed on to the end consumer. With the insurance industry largely offline – in the form of paper forms and applications – the opportunity for potential fraudsters to slip through the cracks is large, and damaging for the whole industry. Huddle co-founders, Jason Wilby and Jonathan Buck, saw an opportunity to use technology to disrupt the traditional insurance industry, reduce fraud, and […]
Moneysoft expands footprint with Investfit and Xeppo integrations
Moneysoft has struck new deals to integrate its cashflow as a service solution with goalsbased advice software Investfit and software data connector Xeppo. The partnerships bring together powerful technology and the capability for financial services providers to offer customised solutions that meet the individual needs of their client base. Moneysoft founder and managing director, Peter Malekas, said the integrations will unlock new insights for financial services businesses, supporting deeper client engagement while also identifying future leads and increasing efficiency. “We’re putting control back into the hands of funds, advisers and brokers to say what they want to achieve and how they want it to look and feel. These new integrations […]
Australians are being ripped off on currency exchange
Australians are being ripped off by poor currency exchange rates and fees, an analysis by researcher Capital Economics shows. The researcher estimates in 2016 Australian holidaymakers and work travellers paid well over $1 billion in fees and poor exchange rates on their currency exchanges. This figure includes more than $110 million in poor exchange rates and fees for cash exchanged before travelling overseas. It includes more than $930 million on dud exchange rates applied to card purchases abroad, and almost $170 million in charges for overseas cash withdrawals. It’s not only individuals who are losing out. Small and medium-sized businesses are forgoing almost $150 million a year in poor exchange […]
Broker channel needs to be ‘undercut’, says fintech boss
The founder of an online mortgage marketplace says there is too much “fat” in the home loan value chain and believes there is space for a non-advice model in mortgage distribution. Joust managing director Mark Bevan, who worked at CBA and Westpac before launching the online mortgage bidding platform in 2015, said that Joust is focused on lowering the cost of origination for lenders and borrowers. Joust targets Australian borrowers with good credit scores and simple needs. While he understands that customers with more complex needs will require the services of mortgage brokers, Mr Bevan believes that his model offers a cheaper alternative to traditional third-party distribution. “The mortgage broker […]
The rise of cashless society – is your business listening to your customers?
You will often hear a small business owner complain about the banks ‘taking their cut’ of every transaction. The cost of having a transaction machine can feel like a big expense for some businesses; and many then pass those costs onto their customers in the form of surcharges. However, with the introduction of tap and go technology comes numerous cost-effective options available to the small business owner – and Australian customers are loving them; a recent survey by the RFI Group reveals that 32 per cent of Australians believed they could go cashless. The same survey shows that Australia currently has the highest use of contactless tap and go cards […]
The future will be fuelled by data
The digital disruption rippling through business and government today is merely a curtain raiser for what comes next. The combination of artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technologies and quantum computing will usher in new operating models, new industries, new possibilities. The future will be fuelled by data and technologies that harvest, protect, analyse and take action based on that information. Professor Mary-Anne Williams, director of the innovation and enterprise research lab at the University of Technology, Sydney, believes that cognitive computing is already a game-changer. “Cognitive computing is able to convert vast volumes of complex data into decision-making models that can be used take action autonomously without human oversight or intervention. […]
Who is using bitcoin in Australia?
If you’re wondering who are the major bitcoin users in Australia, they are white males under the age of 34 living on the eastern seaboard, according to research undertaken last month. The research, carried out by Bitcoin.com.au, shows millennials are adapting to bitcoin, the peer-to-peer (P2P) digital currency, just like other systems of “collective commons” such as Uber and Netflix, which provide greater savings and efficiency to customers. Most of those Australians surveyed said they were using bitcoin for the purpose of investment. With the price of one bitcoin rising more than 500 per cent in the past 12 months (August 2016: $US600; August 2017: $US3200), it’s historically been a […]
