Ignition Wealth announces new CEO Manish Prasad
Ignition Wealth Co-Founder and inaugural CEO Mark Fordree today announced the appointment of Manish Prasad to the role of CEO of Ignition Wealth. “On behalf of the Ignition Wealth Board, executive team and staff, we are extremely pleased to have engaged Manish Prasad to lead Ignition Wealth. Manish is a deeply experienced and well respected financial services executive, whose expertise and knowledge will guide Ignition Wealth as we continue to grow.”, said Mark Fordree, Executive Director, Ignition Wealth. Manish is a highly credentialed financial services executive with deep domain experience in financial advice across all channels and segments. Manish’s career includes senior roles globally for NAB/MLC, AMP/AXA, Genesys Wealth Advisors, […]
Australia’s first equity crowdfunding deal closes successfully
Equity crowdfunding platform OnMarket has successfully closed Australia’s first equity crowdfunding offer. Revvies Energy Strips Limited (Revvies) has become the first company in Australia to raise capital by utilising the government’s new equity crowdfunding legislation. Equity crowdfunding is the new way for everyday investors, mums and dads, and the millennial generation to invest in early-stage and growth-stage businesses. Where traditionally, this capital raising space was dominated by wealthy individuals, venture capitalists and angel investors, now everyone is able to handpick a company, invest and gain a stake. OnMarket founder Ben Bucknell said “Equity crowdfunding brings entrepreneurs and consumer investors together for the first time, and that is what we have […]
Sydney Angels funds QPay $570k to steal millennial students from banks
Australia’s first ever student marketplace app, QPay, has raised $570,000 from a series of high profile investors, including Sydney Angels and the Sydney Angels Sidecar Fund 2, to break into student banking through the release of a student-targeted QPay MasterCard. QPay aims to use the QPay MasterCard to capture the largest cluster of millennial consumers at the point when they’re most likely to begin making serious financial decisions – when enrolled in tertiary education. “University is the time when life decisions start to become quite future-focussed, especially regarding our finances,” said Andrew Clapham, Co-Founder of QPay. “We might be weighing up the amount of student debt we can responsibly accrue, […]
Peppermint to access over 1m Filipinos in tech deal
ASX listed fintech, Peppermint Innovation, has signed a potentially transformational service provider agreement with the largest cooperative federation in the Philippines. The deal brings more than one million potential Filipino customers into play for the Perth based financial payments APP provider. In a recent market update, Peppermint said it will develop a mobile financial services app and web tool for “MASS-SPECC”, the oldest cooperative federation in the Philippines, encompassing more than 300 affiliated cooperatives and one million individual members. MASS-SPECC is shorthand for the Mindanao Alliance of Self-Help Societies -Southern Philippines Educational Cooperative Centre, Peppermint said the app, to be known as the ‘Peppermint Conditional Cash Transfer Management System’, will […]
Samsung Pay locks up the “big four” after new partnership with National Australia Bank
Samsung Pay has become the first mobile wallet provider to lock up the “big four” banks after today announcing a partnership with the last of the major institutions – the National Australian Bank. NAB customers now join those from Commonwealth Bank, Westpac and ANZ to use Samsung Pay to make payments with compatible Samsung smartphones, Samsung smartwatches and other wearables. Customers can load their Visa credit and/or debit card and pay securely anywhere credit cards are accepted. Apart from the big four banks, Samsung Pay works with more than 45 other financial institutions around Australia. Samsung has made good on its promise to provide its customers with a simple and […]
Blockchain: A catalyst for new business models
The concept of blockchain technology is all but synonymous with cryptocurrency. It’s through pioneers such as bitcoin that everyday consumers have come to recognise this revolutionary and instantaneous mechanism for executing and recording financial transactions. But in business, curiosity is turning into innovation and experimentation. The use of blockchain to complete financial transactions is one of the more rudimentary applications of this technology. Blockchain means we now have a way to handle information without relying on a single trusted ledger, such as banks in the context of cryptocurrencies. Across all industries, how we verify, audit, enter, record, and update data has been left to a patchwork of different technologies and […]
First Australian post-grad financial technology course
Swinburne has launched Australia’s first postgraduate course in financial technology (FinTech) in response to the explosion in demand for qualifications in emerging technologies such as blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The Graduate Certificate and the Master of Financial Technologies will be offered as of Semester 2 and are targeted to those already working in the financial services and technology industries. The Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship (AGSE) will deliver these courses. As with all AGSE Master degrees, substantial industry collaboration in course development and delivery will be important to the success of these FinTech offerings. Director of the Master of Financial Technologies (FinTech), Associate Professor Mark Pickering, says the courses will provide […]
Treasurer Scott Morrison watches as global fintech policy race heats up
A global race by governments on fintech innovation policy is on; is Australia at risk of being left behind? A major policy announcement in London last week by the UK government – attended by Treasurer Scott Morrison – shows just how fast this race is being run. While financial services has historically been a closed sector, carved up for domestic players who can benefit from regulation, fintech is starting to break that down, as the market goes global. Building on its “open banking” regime, which was switched on in January, Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said last week he would push the pedal down harder on fintech. This […]
