Australian fintech Airwallex confirmed as latest fintech unicorn following Series C fundraising
Airwallex confirms unicorn status following a successful Series C fundraising round of $100m USD, valuing the company at over $1bn USD. Founded in Melbourne in 2015, Australian fintech Airwallex has grown from an emerging start-up to a global challenger in the crossborder payment space, supporting a client base of internet titans including JD.com, Tencent and Ctrip, and large financial service companies including MasterCard. Top-tier investor DST Global led the Series C fundraising round, which closed at $100m USD. DST Global has been a primary investor across a number of global technology success stories, including Facebook, Airbnb and Spotify, and other fintech leaders, such as Robinhood. Alongside new investor DST Global, […]
Apple Card is a credit card you can sign up for and start using with your iPhone
Apple’s getting into the credit card business with Apple Card, a new way to pay if you own an iPhone. It’s a credit card directly from Apple housed in the Wallet app, with no fees, lower interest rates, cash rewards, while also being private and secure. The announcement comes from the company’s event in Cupertino, California, where it debuted other services like Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, and Apple News Plus. Apple said retail acceptance of Apple Pay, which allows for contactless payments with your iPhone, is almost at 70 percent in the U.S., and in countries like Australia, it’s at 99 percent. Apple Pay will be in more than […]
Borrowers switch to P2P lending for home loans
The irresponsible lending practices uncovered by the year-long inquiry by the Royal Commission on big banks seemed to have pushed borrowers to alternative lending providers, the CEO of peer-to-peer loan provider SocietyOne said. SocietyOne’s Mark Jones told Yahoo Finance that peer-to-peer loans have already gained traction in the industry. In fact, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that personal loans’ share of the lending market doubled from 14% to 28% between 2010 and 2018. Meanwhile, data from CommSec reveal that borrowing from non-bank institutions grew 10.3% in August 2018. “The reality is people trust the big four banks as secure, and they actually trust their local branch manager. […]
Asia Pacific look towards embracing technologies to advance their digital transformation strategy: F5 Networks survey
Asia Pacific organisations are keenly taking advantage of embracing emerging technologies to accelerate their digital transformation projects. F5 Networks’ (NASDAQ: FFIV) latest 2019 State of Application Services report revealed that 41 percent of Asia Pacific organisations are employing containers, and taking advantage of agile development methodologies to deliver applications smarter and faster. While such shifts present new opportunities for automation and agility, complexity levels also arise; leaving organisations with additional challenges such as enforcing consistent security and optimising reliable performance standards. “As Asia Pacific businesses look to further advance their ongoing digital transformation initiatives, the ability to modernise its application portfolio and infrastructure is taking center stage,” said Adam Judd, Senior […]
FPA launches fintech assistance
Attempting to offer guidance in the maze of fintech products on the market, the Financial Planning Association (FPA) has launched an online solution to help identify which ones would most improve the profitability and efficiency of planning practices. The diagnostic tool would quantify the actual costs and time involved in providing advice services and provide a basis for calculating how to price offerings accordingly. It was developed with advice technology producer YTML. FPA chief executive, Dante Do Gori, said that this would help planners get a clearer picture of the time and costs involved in advice to allow them to choose the tech solutions that would benefit them most, noting […]
RepuCoin secure blockchain defends against attackers
In what its originators have billed as a ‘world first’, a secure blockchain has been developed that they claim can defend against malicious activity. Monash University researchers are part of an international team that created the system, which, it is claimed, can successfully block malicious activity by attackers who possess more than half of the system’s computing power. The system, RepuCoin, introduces the concept of ‘reputation’ to blockchain, supposedly making it thousands of times more expensive to attack than Bitcoin. Its creators claim it has the potential to be applied in a number of global sectors including fintech, energy, food supply chains, health care and future 5G telecommunications networks. RepuCoin’s […]
Digital wallets at ‘tipping point’, says ME Bank
The use of digital wallets is at a “tipping point” and customers will soon expect all banks to provide such services, says Members Equity Bank, as its decision to develop the smart phone technology dented first-half profits. As the lender delivered results that showed it was winning market share but facing skinnier profit margins, chief executive Jamie McPhee also said he thought the housing downturn had further to run, tipping house price falls of another 5 to 10 per cent. The industry-fund owned bank, known as ME, booked a $5 million impairment in its first-half result as it stopped work on its credit card platform to divert funds to work […]
Why more Aussies are turning to peer-to-peer loans
The Royal Commission into the banks and financial services unveiled a series of disturbing, infuriating and unsurprising truths. Australia’s response to the findings could send tremors through the financial services sector as the search for alternatives to the incumbent providers becomes more urgent. It means peer-to-peer loans – which have already seen significant gains – could become even more prominent in the lending landscape, the CEO of peer-to-peer loan provider SocietyOne, Mark Jones believes. SocietyOne is an online peer-to-peer loan platform, connecting investors’ funds with borrowers’ needs. The majority of loans SocietyOne writes are personal loans. Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Jones said Australians have been resigned to accessing credit from […]
