Bureaucracy fumbles Australia’s innovation vision
Australian corporate regulator ASIC’s commissioner, John Price, has called out “innovation” as a concept about which it is easy to wax lyrical, but “difficult to apply in practice”. Mr Price made the comments at the recent Senate Economics Legislation Committee meeting into the regulatory sandbox for fintechs when asked: “Is an innovation benchmark appropriate?” With just five fintech companies making the grade for the first version of the sandbox, and consumer advocacy group Choice arguing the sandbox needed a higher “innovation” bar to entry, his answer suggests this is a bigger question than the regulatory body can begin to answer. Mr Price was “not surprised” with the low take-up of […]
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Westpac strikes deal with Assembly Payments
Westpac Banking Corp has bought an equity stake in Assembly Payments and will work with the Melbourne-based fintech to integrate the bank’s merchant terminals with customers’ point-of-sale (POS) software, removing the need for transaction amounts to be entered into retailers’ systems twice. For workers in the nation’s restaurants and coffee shops, entering the dollar amount of a transaction into a banking terminal to complete a sale might be a small frustration, but the extra process can add up to real dollars for business owners. Westpac estimates that for a typical Sydney CBD cafe – which completes between 1000 and 1500 transactions a day – the three to five seconds of […]
Fintech and Property: What You Need to Know
Using Fintech in the property industry Australians embrace technology in everyday life and they expect it to be part of everything they do. For the last three years, Fintech has been one of the fastest growing industries in Australia, with the number of registered companies growing from around 100 in 2015 to 600 in 2018. With the rapid growth of the industry in Australia, the door is open for the property industry to benefit. What Fintech products will the property industry gain the most benefit from? Data Analytics: Using information and data from Fintech platforms will help advisors and agents to make informed decisions for their clients. They will be […]
MYOB’s $180m bid to buy Reckon in doubt as Xero considered zero competition
The competition watchdog has called into doubt accounting software company MYOB’s planned $180 million acquisition of the accounting practice software unit of rival firm Reckon, saying it was concerned that the merged product would have no competition. In a statement on Thursday morning Australian Competition and Consumer Commission commissioner Roger Featherston said that If the acquisition progressed, it would likely be the only supplier of practice software suitable for medium to large accounting firms. While the hold up of its plans represents a potential blow to MYOB’s plans, it will take comfort in the backhander delivered to its main rival Xero, which had its competing Xero HQ product dismissed as […]
On The Money: Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay explained
Over the last ten years, smartphones have replaced MP3 players, PDAs, cameras and – for some – even dedicated portable computing devices like laptops. Now, smartphone and wearable vendors are trying to replace your wallet by cementing themselves as a crucial part of the mobile payments space. If you’re confused about things like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay – here’s everything you need to know. What are mobile payments services? Mobile Payment services (also known as mobile payment platforms or digital wallets) is a term that refers services or apps that allow you to pay for things with your phone or smartwatch (via a connected credit or debit card). The […]
Super Plus switches to SMSF fintech
Brisbane-based SMSF administrator Super Plus is migrating its clients to Mclowd, which provides its core software for free. The administrator has entered into a five-year agreement with Mclowd – a fintech with about $1 billion in super assets under administration on its SMSF platform. The shift to Mclowd will help the Super Plus save about $165,000 in costs over the period. “This move will also reduce our prospective licensing costs by more than $33,000 per annum. As the needs and expectations of our clients evolve we need progressive partners to give us the edge. In that context, the shift to Mclowd is a no-brainer,” Super Plus managing director Phillip Whiteley […]
Australian Tax Agency Seeks Public Input Concerning Cryptocurrency Taxes
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has been researching how to formulate regulatory guidelines for taxing cryptocurrencies recently. This week the ATO is seeking input from Australian residents concerning how the country should tax digital assets. Over the past few months, the ATO has been drafting taxation guidelines for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. The Australian tax agency has already described how it wants citizens to record all of their digital asset transactions and document the Australian dollar value amount at the time of each transaction. The ATO’s “Seeking Input” letter details its recently defined descriptions “resulted in queries from the community about how to approach specific tax events.” In order to deal […]
