5 Tips For Better Understanding Peer-to-Peer Property Lending in Australia
As a bumper year for property investment comes to a close, emerging trends towards non-bank finance in the property space gather steam heading into the new year. Developers need more funds to deliver their projects as the major banks pull back on finance. As more investors get comfortable with researching higher yielding investment opportunities, we take a look at the key things you need to know about ‘Peer-to-Peer’ (P2P) debt-style lending in the Australian property market. Don’t Chase High Returns If a debt offering is returning 18-30% and is a mezzanine type, deal chances are it is extremely risky. A developer is only paying this pain money as a […]
Start-up women gain $1m to break mould
A $1 million program targeted at female entrepreneurs has been launched to shake up the start-up sector to change its image as one dominated by “blokes in hoodies and sneakers”. Start-up accelerator BlueChilli, with the support of GSK Australia, has created SheStarts, a national accelerator program and campaign to turbocharge female leadership in the start-up economy. BlueChilli’s head of diversity and impact, Nicola Hazell, who is also director of SheStarts, said there was a huge gender gap in that part of the economy. “Australia is looking at how we transform our economy to be innovative and technology-led but we are building an economy where women are missing in action,” she […]
Returns on IPOs Jump in 2016
Year-to-date returns on Australian Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) sat at an impressive 35.8% as at November 30, compared to just 2.7% for the S&P/ASX200, a sign of a healthy company float market, according to Ben Bucknell, Chief Executive of OnMarket BookBuilds (OMB). The OnMarket November IPO Report reveals over the month of November, 12 companies raised a total $1.95 billion by floating on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), well up on the five listings in November 2015 which raised $558 million. The average return on those IPOs was 5.2%, a 2.8% outperformance of the S&P/ASX 200. Ben Bucknell, Chief Executive of OnMarket BookBuilds (OMB), said it has been a good […]
CBA want to use AI to tackle fraud and cyber attacks
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is developing artificial intelligence technology to help with cyber security, fraud detection and regulatory compliance, in a sign banks are attempting to put the power of big data to use in reducing risk. CBA’s chief information officer David Whiteing told The Australian Financial Review that so-called machine learning technology will be used to help the bank make sense of large sets of “noisy” data and alert management to areas requiring their attention. The work will come alongside a broader program of innovative projects investigating the possibilities of technologies such as the internet of things, quantum computing and the blockchain. “When you have a large data set […]
Xero + Apple Pay + Stripe = Faster Payments
Xero today announced the integration of Apple Pay through Stripe, making it even faster and easier for customers to get paid. Xero’s 862,000 subscribers can now offer their customers the ability to view and pay an invoice using Apple Pay through Stripe. Invoices paid with a payment service get paid almost 80 per cent faster than invoices that don’t offer a payment service. This new feature is available automatically to everyone on Xero using Stripe where Apple Pay is available. Small business owners consistently point to delays in getting paid as one of their biggest pain points, which puts a strain on cash flow. Xero customers sent 15 million invoices […]
Startup founders say crowdfunding delays are an ‘extreme embarrassment’
Startup founders have hit out at the Labor Party for its refusal to support the passage of a long-awaited crowd sourced equity funding (CSEF) bill, resulting in the legislation being pushed back until February at the earliest. The move from Labor, which was led by digital economy spokesman Ed Husic, comes a week after the bill was introduced to Parliament for a second time, having already been knocked back in December 2015. The new bill, if eventually passed, means unlisted public companies with less than $25 million in assets and turnover would be able to raise capital via crowd-sourced equity funding. A spokesperson for Treasurer Scott Morrison told Fairfax Media […]
ANZ Strikes Again: After Apple Pay comes BladePay
The ANZ Bank, fresh from establishing itself as a satisfied customer of Apple for its Apple Pay digital wallet system for consumers, has now launched BladePay, an Android-based mobile payments solution for Australian businesses. It describes BladePay as a handheld payment device which is capable of running third-party applications and uses the Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system. It features a 5-inch display, an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera, and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, along with a 1/2D barcode scanner. Wi-Fi and 4G are available as connectivity options. “We are routinely told that managing payments is one of the biggest pain points for business owners, yet when we looked at the market we […]
Media mogul-backed bank challenger close to breaking even
SocietyOne, a peer-to-peer lender that is partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Stokes and James Packer’s companies, expects to start making profits within the next 12 to 18 months. The start-up lender has in recent years been heavily investing in marketing, technology and new staff as it seeks to establish peer-to-peer lending on Australia’s financial landscape, pinching some of the profits banks make from the $100 billion personal credit market. After a year of rapid loan growth, chief executive Jason Yetton said the lender now faced the prospect of breaking even, though this would depend on how much it invested. “We think it can reach profitability over the next 12 […]
