How Westpac is investing in fintechs and spending $1 billion on digital transformation
Westpac’s annual results show how far the bank has gone to transform itself into a digital showcase and how it has been heavily investing in the rise of disrupting fintechs. Out of a total investment of $1.4 billion, the bank spent more than $800 million in system upgrades, digital transformation, and innovation. CEO Brian Hartzer says the focus has been on delivering technology platforms, while simplifying and automating processes to make banking easier. “We have already migrated 100 applications onto our cloud infrastructure platforms which are now largely complete,” he says. “Additionally we have over 120 APIs in production and another 180 in development.” Among digital initiatives are Siri for […]
Neobanks are about to explode onto the Australian market
A number of restricted banking licences are expected to be issued to aspiring neobank startups by Australian authorities in the next few months. A raft of fintech players, including Xinja and Up, have already completed detailed applications to the prudential regulator APRA. The first licence went to Volt in May this year, creating another bank in Australia for the first time in 28 years. Since then, key players have been working to complete the regulatory hurdles to be able to call themselves a bank. APRA hasn’t a timetable for an announcement of new restricted authorised deposit-taking institution (RADI) licences but several startups expect an announcement shortly. The new restricted licence […]
Finastra launches Open Banking Readiness Index in Asia Pacific
Finastra today launched its Open Banking Readiness Index, providing for the first time a framework for banks in the Asia-Pacific region to assess their capabilities and benchmark readiness against peers in the race towards Open Banking. Unveiled during Hong Kong Fintech Week, the research reveals that 84% of the top 146 banks in Asia Pacific are considering collaborating with external partners to enhance their Open Banking capabilities between 2018 and 2020. Developed in partnership with IDC Financial Insights, the Finastra Open Banking Readiness Index measures banks across five dimensions – Adoption of APIs, Fintech/Third-Party Ecosystem, State of Data-based Transformation, Data Monetization, and State of Innovation. It is based on interviews […]
Neobank pioneer Brett King joins Xinja
Xinja, which is building a 100% independent digital bank, or ‘neobank’ for mobile, is adding significant global expertise to its organisation with the announcement that Brett King will act as a permanent advisor to the Board, and help guide Xinja’s strategic direction. Brett King founded neobank Moven in 2011, which launched the world’s first mobile, downloadable bank account. He is widely considered the most influential expert on retail banking innovation globally. Mr King was an advisor to the Obama White House, the US Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on the future of banking in the United States. Mr King said: “I have been working […]
CBA ramps up blockchain
Commonwealth Bank is close to completing more blockchain projects, after it delivered the world’s first blockchain bond with World Bank in August. Speaking at SIBOS, Sophie Gilder who is CBA’s head of experimentation and commercialisation for blockchain, embodied AI and emerging technology said CBA has a portfolio of blockchain projects. Some of these are at very early stages where the bank is trying to determine if they are worthwhile to take forward or not. Others are at a pilot stage where the bank has been through successful proof of concept, has demonstrated the feasibility of the technology being applied to a particular problem and is taking the project to the […]
2018 AFR Young Rich List: Emily Skye backs Millennial bank start-up
Fitness star and Young Rich Lister Emily Skye may have built a small fortune but that doesn’t mean she’s good with money. “I’ve never really known what’s going on with money, I mean I love to spend it but I’m not able to track it and really be responsible for it,” Ms Skye said. Ms Skye rockets up the 2018 Financial Review Young Rich List with an estimated worth of $36 million, reflecting growth in her online fitness business that attracted an undisclosed investment from Quadrant Private Equity this year. As she continues to build the fitness business, including releasing the first app for her FIT program this year, Ms […]
Melbourne Fintech to disrupt the way young Australians travel
Melbourne Fintech Pelikin is on the cusp of disrupting the Australian travel money market with its mobile-only multi-currency account and prepaid Visa card. The young team is on a mission to make “travel brighter” for young Australians by providing them with valuable travel and money services that have been built with their best interests first. At its core, the Pelikin app and card will allow users to hold up to five different currencies at once and spend in over 200 countries across the world in an easy, affordable way. Last month, Pelikin released its prepaid card and with a unique vertical and neon yellow design, it’s a far cry from […]
Verrency adds two more partners – Basiq and Pulse iD – to enable financial data aggregation and geolocation services to be easily accessed by banks
Australian global payments innovator Verrency has certified two new strategic partners, Basiq and Pulse iD, to enhance the commercial offerings it enables for issuers and banks. Announcing the partnership today at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, the deal enables Basiq and Pulse iD to easily distribute their financial data aggregation and geolocation services to global financial institutions via Verrency’s integration platform. Verrency Founder and CEO, David Link, said Basiq and Pulse iD are fantastic additions to Verrency’s growing fintech services marketplace, V+, in making it increasingly easier for banks and issuers to innovate at scale by significantly reducing their own cost of integration with FinTechs. In accessing Basiq via the […]
