Bitcoin spikes after Japan says it’s a legal payment method
Bitcoin trades up 2.8% at $1,133 a coin as of 7:08 a.m. ET on Monday. The cryptocurrency’s gains come after Japan announced on Friday that bitcoin would be accepted as a legal payment method beginning on April 1, 2017. It’s the first bit of good news for bitcoin in quite some time. Recent chatter in the market has centered around developers threatening a “hard fork” that would split the currency in two. Additionally, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two bitcoin ETFs in March, saying that it did not find the proposals “to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the […]
Financial collaboration platform myprosperity closes strategic investment round, appoints Chris Ridd as CEO
myprosperity, Australia’s leading cloud-based financial management platform has recently closed a $2.5M strategic investment round and appointed former Xero Australia MD Chris Ridd as Chief Executive Officer. The strategic investment round was supported by existing investors, and saw the addition of MYOB co-founder and early Xero investor, Craig Winkler, to its investor base. Established in 2011 by founder and Executive Chairman Peter McCarthy, myprosperity aims to cause a shift in the way households think about and manage their finances. Utilising the latest cloud technologies and connecting with real-time data feeds, it provides comprehensive wealth reports to give the user a true picture of their overall financial health. Myprosperity partners […]
ACCC says Apple Pay will boost card competition
Apple Pay’s ability to toggle through different payment cards was seen as pro-competitive by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and became one of the key factors leading the regulator to favour Apple over the banks. In an interview with The Australian Financial Review after the ACCC knocked back an application by the banks to collectively negotiate with Apple over access to the iPhone’s “near field communication” (NFC) controller, ACCC chairman Rod Sims said the banks’ arguments that such access could increase competition for digital wallets were “strong” – but the regulator always has to be cautious about intervening in markets. At a time when the industry is looking for […]
The ‘booming’ NSW economy that 100,000 people have joined
Growing use of services such Uber and Airbnb has led to a billion-dollar increase in the size of the so-called sharing or collaborative economy in NSW over the past year, a new study has found. The sale of goods and services via peer-to-peer technologies generated $2.6 billion in revenue for the NSW economy last year, recording growth of nearly 70 per cent, according to the research from Deloitte Access Economics commissioned by the finance department. The number of people in NSW earning an income from businesses that are part of what the state government calls the collaborative economy has nearly doubled over the past 12 months to reach 92,400, the […]
ACCC knocks back the banks on Apple Pay
The competition regulator has rejected an application by the banks to collectively negotiate with technology giant Apple over access to the iPhone’s “near field communication (NFC) controller. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corporation, National Australia Bank and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank had asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for permission to negotiate as a block in order to give them more negotiating power to have Apple open the NFC to their own digital wallets. But ACCC chairman Rod Sims said on Friday: “We are concerned that the proposed conduct is likely to reduce or distort competition in a number of markets. “The banks said they are “disappointed” with […]
A view to the future of investment operations
Blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics, automated data entry and data mining are some of the big technological trends set to radically disrupt the way the back-office teams of superannuation funds and their service providers do their jobs in the not-too-distant future. The onslaught of change confronting investment operations teams is not limited to technology, though. The shift in assets to the deaccumulation phase, mergers, growth in funds under management and unrelenting regulatory changes are forcing industry players to make serious decisions about what to prioritise. Investment operations refers to all the cogs of the financial services machinery, and covers areas such as the implementation of investment transactions, performance reporting, analytics, fund […]
Stake lifts the bar for trading US stocks and ETFs
It was during a three-year stint in Chicago, working for market maker Optiver, that Matt Leibowitz realised Australians were getting gouged buying international equities through the brokerages owned by the big banks and the customer experience was woeful. “During my years in the US I was amazed at the breadth of product offered to US investors at a compelling price,” said Mr Leibowitz, who was a lawyer at Allens before joining Optiver in 2007. “I was shocked at the breadth and costs in Australia: we paid more and got less.” Returning to Australia four years ago, Mr Leibowitz started to sense an opportunity to start a fintech that would provide […]
Indian fintech revolution in motion, calling Australian fintechs to join us at Australia-India TatXpo 2017
Indian fintech revolution in motion, calling Australian fintechs, corporates and investors to participate. Taking interest for Australia-India TatXpo 28-30 June 2017 in Mumbai, India. What is TatXpo? TatXpo is the flagship annual Australia-India trade and investment expo established by Tat Capital. The focus will be on uncovering fintech opportunities and will be held in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Last year’s format was day 1 expo and gala festivities, day 2 industrial site visits and day 3 cultural tour which we intend to repeat. Last year 93 delegates attended TatXpo2016 in Hyderabad (tech city) which included 22 ANZ CEOs, 55 companies and 25 VC/PE investors from 8 countries. They […]
