Apple Pay goes live for CBA
Commonwealth Bank customers can now use their iPhones for tap-and-go payments, in a change that may up the pressure on the remaining big banks to follow suit and cave in to the tech giant. The country’s biggest bank on Wednesday started providing Apple Pay, a service that allows customers to make contactless payments with their phones, as well as streamlined purchases in apps and on the web. Until CBA announced its deal with Apple last month, ANZ Bank had been the only big four bank to provide the service in Australia, after CBA, Westpac and National Australia Bank reached a stalemate in talks with Apple in 2016 over access to […]
Big four banks consider creating their own digital brands
Each of the big four banks have considered launching new digital bank brands to attract new, young, digital-savvy customers. Apart from National Australia Bank’s UBank, the plans have been non-starters, getting lost among layers of bureaucracy, management changes and restrictions on new investment. But the pending launch of Volt Bank, which on Tuesday received an unrestricted banking licence from the prudential regulator, and with Up already in the market, the majors might be forced to reconsider whether creating entirely new standalone digital brands, or partnering with emerging players in the emerging “neobank” space, is needed to stay on the front foot in the fast-moving world of digital banking. NAB is […]
“High fives” as Volt gets full licence
“Tears and high fives” swept the office at one of Australia’s biggest challenger banks yesterday, as it was granted its full banking licence (22 January). Volt Bank was the first digital bank to be given a restricted authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) licence in May last year from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). Since that time the team has worked “tirelessly” to put the technology and processes in place to become a fully licenced bank. With a full licence there are no restrictions on the amount the bank can lend or receive. CEO Steve Weston said they planned to introduce home loans at the back end of 2019, with mortgage […]
‘Grown ups’: Neobanking sector chases customer sign ups
Australia’s digital banking sector promises the sector is no longer in its infancy and this year the chase for customers is on. “I’m guessing that you’ll see four to five new neobanks start up over the next 24 months,” chief executive of Xinja, Eric Wilson, says. The banking startup kicked off 2019 by launching a new equity crowdfunding campaign, raising $500,000 in its first nine hours to build on its previous $2.7 million raise in January 2019. Revenues are currently in the tens of thousands, but the business is pitching long-term growth once its products are formally launched. The business has a restricted banking licence from the Australian Prudential Regulatory […]
You want cash with that? ANZ plugs Apple Pay into eftpos
Millions of ANZ debit card holders will now be able to get cash out with over the counter Apple Pay transactions, after eftpos scored a massive win over the dominance of US credit card companies in smartphone payments. From today ANZ customers will get a new choice of picking cheque or savings for purchases made via debit cards linked to Apple Pay, specifically the Access Advantage Visa debit card which ANZ customer engagement lead Kath Bray said amounted to three million cardholders. ANZ is by far the most dominant Australian bank in the Apple Pay space after it broke away from rivals boycotting Cupertino because of the size of the […]
Open banking quietly delayed
The much-anticipated launch of open banking in Australia has been quietly delayed by the federal government by eight months. On the last Friday before Christmas, a day typically used to “take out the trash” and make some unfavorable or unpopular announcements, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg put out a statement late in the afternoon revealing that the open banking regime would not kick off in July as previously announced. Instead, a “pilot program” would be conducted by the Big Four banks in partnership with the ACCC and Data61 to “test the performance, reliability and security of the open banking system”. The delay is likely to infuriate the local FinTech sector and consumers […]
ANZ Bank buys into online mortgage broker Lendi
ANZ Banking Group has taken a strategic stake in online home loans platform Lendi. Street Talk understands ANZ paid close to $40 million for a minority stake, to become Lendi’s second largest strategic shareholder behind fellow Australian financial services giant Macquarie Group. Importantly for Lendi, which has 37 banks and lenders on its open home loans platform, the business will continue to be run independently and at arms length to its strategic investors. ANZ will not be given a board seat, as consistent with Lendi’s treatment of Macquarie and other strategic investors including Pepper. It is understood ANZ agreed to write the cheque after spending much of last year talking […]
HSBC used blockchain to settle $250B worth of trades
HSBC has settled $250 billion worth of forex trades using blockchain in the last year, it said on Monday, suggesting the heavily hyped technology is gaining traction in a sector until now hesitant to embrace it. The bank has settled over three million forex trades and made over 150,000 payments since February using blockchain, it said in a statement. HSBC would not give data on forex trades settled by traditional processes, saying only that those settled by blockchain represented a “small” proportion. Still, the data marks a significant milestone in the use of blockchain by mainstream finance, which has until now been reluctant to start using the technology at any […]
