Aussie fintechs forge closer ties with London
Australian and British fintech start-ups, regulators and government bodies will look to deepen ties this week as ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Cyber Security, Dan Tehan, and ASX deputy CEO Peter Hiom lead a fintech trade delegation to London. The trip, arranged by the Australian British Chamber of Commerce with support from the Australian Trade and Investments Commission and UK Department for International Trade, will involve Australian-based startups including AgriDigital, Timelio, Neu.Capital, PayDock, Sharesight, Tradle, Splend and Edstart. The group will visit the London Stock Exchange, Amazon and Level 39 in Canary Wharf, which houses more than 200 fintech companies. It will receive briefings from […]
Robo adviser Six Park says lower balance SMSFs are viable
A robo adviser backed by four founding members of the Future Fund says that pre-retirees with starting balances of under $150,000 can run their own super funds, despite the corporate watchdog cracking down on providers that offer low-balance SMSF set-ups. The chief executive of Six Park Patrick Garrett said that the robo adviser, which counts the former federal finance minister Lindsay Tanner as both a financial backer and an advisory board member, is launching a lower-cost establishment service to make self-managed superannuation funds more “accessible” and easier to run, particularly for those with small balances. “I wouldn’t recommend a $10,000 SMSF account. But we have one of our first clients, […]
Personal loan applications surge as credit cards wane
Australians are shunning high interest credit cards and turning to personal loans for large purchases. Driving the switch are tech-savvy consumers taking up loans from peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders, a new breed of online competitors to banks. Credit card applications fell by almost 4 per cent in the March 2017 quarter compared with the same quarter last year, the latest report on consumer credit by credit bureau Equifax shows. That’s the biggest fall since September 2012 quarter. Personal loan applications rose by 13.5 per cent over the same period, the biggest increase since the March 2005 quarter. The latest period of sustained growth in personal loan applications started in the second […]
Sydney, Melbourne climb in financial, fintech league rankings
There was good news overnight for status-conscious Australia’s bid for relevance in global financial services. Both Sydney and Melbourne continue to climb in the rankings of the world’s leading financial centres, with Sydney nestled in the top 10 at number eight after improving three notches, and Melbourne now ensconced at number 21, also up three places. In another round of the endless rankings of global fintech hubs, Sydney also edged up from 9th to 8th position. Perennial favourites London and Singapore shared top billing, with New York and Silicon Valley at 3rd and 4th, and Chicago the highest new entrant at 5th. The methodology behind country league tables is notoriously […]
New FinTech TaxCapture leverages electronic banking to help banish Aussie tax dodgers
Recent media reports quote Federal Government tax revenue losses of an estimated $15 billion due to the widespread cash economy.
Apple Pay leads Digital Wallet usage
Usage of Apple Pay for contactless payments is set to nearly double in 2017, with significantly more users than both Google and Samsung’s digital wallets. Data from Juniper Research indicates Apple Pay will have 86 million contactless users by the end of this year, ahead of the 34 million users of Samsung Pay and 24 million users of Android Pay. Combined, the three digital wallets will surpass 100 million contactless users in the first half of 2017, before surging to over 150 million by the end of the year. Juniper noted that, while Apple will continue to dominate, growth is expected to continue for all three digital wallets, which increased […]
Westpac customers can now use Samsung Pay
Westpac has today announced their debit and credit card holders can now use Samsung Pay – a first move from the big bank outside their own app and payment technology. While they may have been fighting to collectively bargain with Apple for access to Apple Pay it seems Westpac were happy to jump on board Samsung’s digital wallet offering access to their customers and becoming the first major bank to support Samsung Pay. Alongside Citibank and AMEX, Westpac customers can add their debit and credit cards to access tap and go payments from their phone or Samsung smart watch. Richard Fink, Vice President, Mobile Division at Samsung Australia said: “We […]
From hippie to hi-tech: Byron Bay Bluesfest ditches drink tickets for RFID microchip wristbands
WHAT will the hippies say? Drink tickets will make way for microchip technology at this year’s Byron Bay Bluesfest in a move set to divide the counterculture community of northern NSW. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) wristbands will serve as ‘digital wallets’, replacing the traditional drink ticket system when the five-day annual Easter music festival opens on Thursday. Increasingly popular at overseas events, RFID technology uses radio waves to read and capture information stored in wristbands to simplify entry, reduce paper tickets and ticketing fraud, slash queues for drinks and ATM machines and minimise the need to carry large amounts of cash to events. The new Bluesfest RFID wristbands will give […]
