‘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 […]
Xinja launches second equity crowdfunding campaign on Equitise platform
Pioneer Australian neobank Xinja today gives everyday Australians another chance to join the digital banking revolution by purchasing shares through leading equity crowdfunding platform Equitise. The raise – opened early to existing investors, customers and people who had registered interest – has passed the minimum of $500,000 in less than 9 hours. Xinja, a digital neobank designed entirely for mobile, last month received unprecedented expressions of interest when its second equity crowdfund to begin in early 2019 was announced on Equitise. With shares available from today on the Equitise platform, Xinja Chief Executive and founder Eric Wilson said he’s confident there will be early and consistent interest from investors who […]
Central banks say digital currency is definitely coming, crypto is maybe coming
Neither cash nor card looks like it will be king in the future. Uruguay, Sweden and emerging economies are among the countries most likely to implement digital currencies first. Most central banks don’t really know what’s going on with cryptocurrency usage in their countries, but believe it to be minimal. Central banks perceive more current and future use of cryptocurrency in cross-border payments than domestic payments. Most countries have given at least a passing glance at central bank digital currency (CBDC). This is exactly what it sounds like – a digital currency issued by a central bank. And many of them are now getting more hands on, according to a […]
Millions looking to leave major banks
New research has found that over two million Australians are currently seeking new banking providers, with many currently customers at one of the big four. The research produced by Nielsen found that 2.1 million Australians are seeking new providers and 67 per cent of them are currently customers at one of the big four. The research found that Australians were increasingly looking away from the established banks and instead looking at digital banks, with a five-percentage point increase in Australians looking to change to digital banks in the past twelve months. Nielsen’s head of financial services and insurance Jo Brockhurst believed that the open banking legislation would see this number […]
