Australian Fintech Credit Savvy Grows to 200,000 Members
Growth continues to accelerate for credit reputation website, Credit Savvy, which announced today that it has reached 200,000 Australian users. The website provides Australians with free access to their Experian credit score, monthly score updates, a knowledge centre to learn about credit and a comparison tool that lets users research and consider hundreds of home loans, credit cards and personal loans. Nearly 2 million free credit scores have been given away to the Credit Savvy member base in the past 18 months. [1] Managing Director, Dirk Hofman said, “It’s great to see that awareness of credit scores has really increased in the past year and it’s humbling to think we’ve […]
Stone & Chalk says the new paradigm is outside-in innovation
It should come as no surprise that Alex Scandurra, chief executive officer Stone & Chalk, is a passionate advocate of collaboration: the raison d’être, justification, objective and mission statement of Stone & Chalk is to help foster and accelerate the development of world-leading fintech start-ups, by leveraging greater collaboration between stakeholders in the fintech eco-system. Stone & Chalk itself is a collaborative effort between fintech entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC) firms, companies, academia and government, to incubate and nurture financial services-focused tech start-ups in ways not seen in Australia before. “Collaboration is at the core of what we do, and it’s one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to […]
Moneysoft launches new package designed to boost client engagement, satisfaction and revenue
Leading personal financial management (PFM) software provider Moneysoft has launched a complete package of resources and tools to help financial advisers introduce an effective, profitable budgeting and cashflow management service to their clientbase. Developed in conjunction with advisers, the Moneysoft Business Processes toolkit contains a series of eBooks, video tutorials, blogs, and client-facing brochures and templates. It is a complete, step-by-step guide on how to build and deliver a relevant goals-based, money management proposition; how to grow and diversify practice revenue; and how to achieve a deeper client engagement through “cashflow as a service”. According to Peter Malekas, managing director of Moneysoft, the ready availability of cloud-based Software as a […]
iSelect trials three-hour digital home loan
ASX-listed iSelect is trialling a new digital home loan process that lets home buyers get conditional approval for a home loan in three hours from multiple lenders, without needing to visit a bank or fill out paperwork. The technology is the first in Australia that digitises the home loan application process and can present offers from multiple lenders, however many of the banks offer a digital service for their own loans. Macquarie Bank, ING and Australian Finance Group are trialling iSelect’s new service, but the business has plans to do a full rollout in 2017. The new service is part of iSelect’s transition to become a “life admin” business, and […]
New tech solution for advisers
Fintech firm, Your Technology Made Lite (YTML), is integrating its Highlighter platform technology for advisers’ in-house Excel solutions to boost accessibility and integration with online systems. YTML chief executive, Kevin Liao, said that Highlighter had already been used for advice web apps and automated with an adviser’s existing IP. “Highlighter automates the development of a web app,” he said. “As long as advisers have the flow of data entry organised… we can configure and upload it into Highlighter and convert it into a web app for them. “Advisers, accountants and SMSF [self-managed superannuation fund] specialists have so much capability sitting within their practices, and by partnering with technology solutions such […]
Afterpay and zipMoney: New instalment of old idea gains momentum
Fellow veterans of the “brown paper and string” era may recall lay-by, the instalment schemes offered by retailers before those plastic works of the devil called bank cards came along. At the risk of going all Bernard Salt on readers, the smashed avocado generation would be aghast to learn that customers of yore were required to put down a deposit on the item, but did not receive the goods until they paid the agreed instalments. What’s old is new again, and now lay-by is being reverse-engineered in the guise of point-of-sale retail intermediaries that finance “no-interest” payment instalment schemes. The key difference is they are “buy now, pay later” schemes […]
Banks, Apple fight to entrench their dominance in customers’ lives
In one corner is the largest company in the world, Apple. In the other sit three of Australia’s all-powerful banks, Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, National Australia Bank, and the country’s fifth biggest lender Bendigo and Adelaide Bank. These corporations have more than $1 trillion in market value between them, and they’re fighting over access to the ubiquitous device that has made Apple such a superpower: the iPhone. As well as being used by millions every day for phone calls, social media and internet access, the smart phone is tipped to play a critical role in how we spend money. This prospect has unleashed a full-scale business brawl, as Apple and the […]
Prospa takes first place in Smart50 Awards
Prospa took out first place at the Smart50 Awards in Melbourne last night. The Awards recognise Australia’s top 50 fastest growing SMEs and were dominated by fintechs and retailers. Prospa was awarded first place with incredible growth of more than 1000% over the past three years. “We are thrilled to be named #1 in Australia,” said Beau Bertoli, Joint CEO of Prospa. “Winning demonstrates that we understand the finance needs of small businesses. However this is just the beginning of our journey. We’ll continue to innovate and create ground breaking finance experiences to help Australian small businesses succeed.” “We’re the leading online lender to small business […]