2018-19 Budget steady for Australian fintech – but the big news is yet to come
Australia’s fintech industry will benefit from a number of important support measures in last night’s 2018-19 Australian Budget but will be forced to wait for the big news about the details of Australia’s open banking framework. FinTech Australia chair Stuart Stoyan said he welcomed a number of funding measures outlined in the budget. These included: $44.6 million over four years from 2018-19 to help Australian consumers to more easily access and use their own data, with the banking sector to be the first Australian industry sector to be subject to this consumer right. $700,000 in 2018-19 for the Digital Transformation Agency to investigate areas where blockchain technology could ‘offer the […]
APRA grants first local digital licence to volt bank
The prudential regulator has signed off on Australia’s first-ever digital bank under a restricted licensing regime that aims to bolster industry competition. The Australian Financial Review revealed that Sydney-based volt bank had been granted a licence by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority early on Monday. APRA later confirmed that volt bank was authorised as a restricted authorised deposit-taking institution (RADI), while non-operating holding company volt Corporation Limited was also approved under the Banking Act 1959. Volt bank is led by former Barclays and National Australia Bank executive Steve Weston which he co-founded with former colleague Luke Bunbury. To date, volt has raised $15.7 million in equity capital via three funding […]
Doshii expands into Asia with signing of Raptor, first major POS in ASEAN market
Doshii API, which connects Apps with POS (Point of Sale), is pleased to announce an integration with Raptor POS, which heralds an expansion into the lucrative Asian market. Doshii, which connects Apps with POS in real-time, was backed by Reinventure in Seed funding in January 2017. It has matured its technology and offerings to the market over the last 12 months. Leslie Tan, Raptor Founder and Managing Director, says his company is pleased to be the first POS vendor across the ASEAN market to sign a partnership with Doshii. “Doshii solves the enormous problem of connecting the high number of Apps in our rapidly changing market to our more than […]
Ex-NAB execs raise $15m to disrupt home loan market with new start-up Athena
Macquarie Capital and Square Peg are the lead investors in a $15 million funding round for fintech start-up Athena, which aims to use the latest technology to steal a march on the big banks in the competitive home loans market. The firm purports to connect home buyers with loans backed directly by the superannuation industry and was founded by former NAB bankers Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkey. They have built a cloud-based digital home loan platform, which they claim will save some borrowers currently with the big four banks up to $100,000 over the life of a loan. The latest capital raise, which also had participation from Apex Capital and […]
Andrew Thorburn explains the fintech forces reshaping NAB
The emergence of fintech has fundamentally changed National Australia Bank’s strategy and the thinking of its chief executive, Andrew Thorburn. He’s deploying more start-up lingo, and said last week the nation’s largest business lender is no longer benchmarking its performance against its rival banks, but rather technology players. Thorburn and his newish tech chief, Patrick Wright, who was previously with Barclays in the United States, went to Seattle and Silicon Valley last month and met with Amazon, Microsoft and Google for some inspiration. Like the tech giants themselves, NAB is pumping up technology spending with sums that would make wannabe disrupters salivate. With a plethora of start-ups nipping at NAB’s […]
Westpac says fintech partnerships paying off
Westpac’s $100 million investment in the Reinventure venture capital fund is paying off for the bank, according to group CEO Brian Hartzer. Reinventure has made 20 investments in areas including distributed ledger technology, payments, data analytics, digital currencies, social networking and P2P lending. Those investments are increasingly a strategic asset for Westpac, Hartzer told a briefing on the bank’s first half results. “These investments have helped build Westpac’s reputation as a good partner for fintech companies and this is now paying off in our core business,” the CEO said. He cited as an example the launch in April of Presto Smart, which integrates point-of-sale systems with merchant payment terminals. “Presto […]
P2P lender partners with Finsure
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lender RateSetter has teamed up with aggregators Finsure and LoanKit. Under the partnership, more than 1,400 brokers accredited with Finsure and LoanKit will be able to offer their clients RateSetter’s personal loan and green loan products. Daniel Foggo, CEO of RateSetter, said that joining the aggregators’ lending panel will help accredited brokers improve their client’s financial wellbeing outside traditional mortgage and insurance offerings with a better deal on personal loans and green loans. He added, “Whether it’s helping clients with paying down expensive credit card debt, purchasing a car or installing solar power for their home, RateSetter’s low-rate loans will give Finsure and LoanKit brokers a new way […]
Myprosperity prospers with Macquarie partnership
Former Xero managing director Chris Ridd’s new start-up myprosperity is partnering with Macquarie, in a deal that will allow his customers access to Macquarie’s investment and cash management accounts. The company, which offers a personal wealth platform for advisers, says it is now up to 530 advisers and 23,000 active users, and is tracking more than $33 billion in assets and $6bn in liabilities. Mr Ridd told The Australian the partnership, one of a growing number of bank/start-up deals, would help give customers control of their own data. “The big issue that has come out of the royal commission is the fact that fee for no service is now a […]
