Westpac launches ‘designer’ wearable payments accessories
The bank has made payment-enabled keychains, silicon tags, and some pins available, but there’s still no sign of Apple Pay. Westpac has announced the availability of “Centsitive Objects” on Wednesday, touted by the bank as a range of “designer” wearable payment-enabled accessories. Instead of just plugging into devices manufactured by others, Westpac launched its own range of wearable, hands-free, and battery-free payment accessories in October. The new range designed by Sydney-based entrepreneur Hayden Cox builds on the bank’s PayWear wearable payments play. According to Cox, his designs are ideally shaped for customers that want a payments device with a “little more flavour”. “Our customers are increasingly on-the-go with more than […]
Neobank Revolut to launch in Australia, 20,000 on waiting list
“I never want Revolut to be referring to itself as a bank,” says its head of marketing, Chad West. “We are an alternative to a bank. We are completely different.” Revolut, headquartered in London, was only founded three years ago; it now has over 3 million customers in Europe, a number that has doubled over the past nine months. The neobank is attracting 7000 new customers each day, and expects this will be 10,000 by the end of this year. In April it secured $US250 million in fresh venture capital funding for global expansion, at a valuation of $US1.7 billion. It’s the fastest-growing unicorn tech company in Europe. And according […]
Missed the 2018 FinTech Summit? Here’s the best recap you’ll read
Tuesday 16th October. The 5th FinTech Summit took place in Sydney. An all-star line-up of FinTech leaders and a sell-out crowd made this the best FinTech Summit yet. The topics of open banking, the rise of challenger banks, the recurring themes of raising capital and hiring talent were all debated. But the prominent themes of the day were integrity, ethics and genuine care for customers. There was a real sense of excitement in the room, with the audience recognising we are at the beginning of a new era in FinTech. Presentations by UP Bank and Xinja demonstrated the differences between a digital challenger bank and a neo bank. Using ground […]
Afterpay’s shares recover as the fintech backs greater regulation of buy-now-pay-later consumer lending
Payments fintech Afterpay, whose shares were hit hard after a Senate inquiry was formed to investigate consumer lenders not covered by the financial services royal commission, says it supports “appropriate regulation” and oversight by corporate regulator ASIC. The company says its buy-now-pay-later model is different to traditional credit, a fact recognised by the New Zealand Government when it recently decided not to include products such as Afterpay in local credit regulations. “Afterpay welcomes the opportunity to participate in any review to ensure an informed discussion takes place in an appropriate forum and that the differentiated nature of Afterpay’s service is clearly understood,” the company said on a statement. The fintech […]
Fintech Bridge: UK sends large Fintech delegation to Australia for SIBOS, Intersekt
The UK Department for International Trade, along with the Prime Minister’s Fintech Ambassador Al Lukies, are heading to Australia as part of the “GREAT Britain showcase.” The group will be participating in Sibos 2018 taking place in Sydney. According to the UK government, the delegation’s aim is to identify and develop business opportunities with potential Australian partners. After a week in Sydney, the UK Fintech delegation will head to Melbourne for the Intersekt Fintech Festival an event hosted by EY and FinTech Australia. The past March, the UK-Australia Fintech Bridge was created to increase trade between the two countries while reducing regulatory barriers and enabling alignment on policy frameworks. During Sibos week, the UK […]
Cross-border payments set for ‘unprecedented change’
The cross-border payments industry is seeing levels of “unprecedented change” globally, including in regulation, where Australia is struggling to keep apace despite the competition watchdog’s probe into the $9 billion foreign currency transaction market. That’s the view of OFX chief executive Skander Malcolm who identifies three themes dominating cross-border payment, including that a larger number of small and medium businesses are utilising global payments to tap into new customers or for their supply chain, and that rapid technological change is spawning a rash of new products and services. He says the third trend is a higher level of regulatory scrutiny and change that is facilitating new models, an area where […]
ASIC tightening regulation on ICOs is a positive move for the industry
ASIC recently announced that it has shut down several Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) for misleading or deceptive statements in their marketing and operation of unlicensed managed investment schemes. This once again casts the spotlight on the unregulated nature of the Cryptocurrency industry and the need for investor protection. Cryptocurrencies and, by association with the larger category of digital assets that they enable and are often confused with, continue to be viewed with suspicion by much of the mainstream public. This is despite, or in some cases as a result of, their explosion into the public consciousness in the last year. The reasons for this are varied. The early association with nefarious activity […]
Open banking: Refinance in 15 minutes
Open banking could see borrowers refinancing their home loans in 15 minutes, according to one panellist at a recent fintech summit. The event, held in Sydney on Tuesday (16 October), focused on how digital innovation was changing finance. The program included speakers and panel discussions on topics such as challenger brands, neo-banking and open banking. One panel session on challenger brands and neo-banks discussed the future of open banking. Panellists included CEO of VOLT bank, Steve Weston, and chief marketing officer of Athena Home Loans, Natalie Dinsdale. Athena Home Loans is still in a soft pilot phase, but Dinsdale said its “mission is to own home loans”. Other panellists were […]
