Australia’s mobile wallet Beem It eschews new fast-payments platform in favor of debit rails
Beem It, a startup owned by three of Australia’s largest banks, has launched a free real-time social payments app designed to run on older debit networks instead of the country’s new faster payments platform. Market research commissioned by Beem It indicates that, because of unpaid small debts between friends, Australia’s national unpaid “mate” debt is worth A$6.2 billion. To get around the embarrassment of asking a friend for repayment, Beem It offers the ability to request money through an app. Rather than use the New Payments Platform (NPP), Australia’s faster payments system, Beem It links to users’ debit cards as a means of achieving scale. “There are about 43 million […]
Westpac ends Prospa deal as banks plan more unsecured SME lending
Westpac Banking Corp has ended its referral relationship with Prospa, a sign major banks are preparing to ramp up unsecured small business lending to try to regain some of the market that has been surrendered to start-ups. After Prospa indefinitely postponed its ASX listing last week amid questions on whether its loan contracts breached new laws, the online business lender faces more intense competition from big banks who are developing new products to lend more to small business without requiring residential property to be pledged as security. “We did not continue our contract with Prospa because we are working on developing our own products that will satisfy more of our […]
Mortgage group’s “mortgage hell” billboard above CBA
Online mortgage startup HashChing is advertising with a billboard above a Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) branch. The home loan marketplace has launched a campaign against the big banks, which includes this billboard in the Melbourne CBD. The slogan reads, “Our brokers will go to mortgage hell, so you don’t have to”. Mandeep Sodhi, CEO of HashChing, said the new billboard made light of the fact that applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing one can be quite an onerous experience. He added, “By positioning this billboard above a CBA branch, we’re encouraging the 80% of borrowers who are currently with a big four bank to find a better […]
How AI is becoming an asset to the finance industry
As AI transforms an increasing number of domains, players in the finance industry are moving fast to keep pace. While many people are aware of the term artificial intelligence (AI), this is largely in relation to the more extreme use-cases of AI such as flying cars and Sophia the AI robot. Yet, much of our contact of AI – and our understanding of it – revolves around products that affect our everyday lives as consumers. An example of this is within the finance industry. Many key players are leveraging the power of AI to improve their services. Here are three ways AI is disrupting the finance industry: Customer service chatbots […]
Banks face a bigger threat than rival banks as customers seek best experience
Innovation and media specialist Tom Goodwin had some pertinent advice for companies, big and small, during a recent visit to Australia from New York. If banks think they are competing with other banks in terms of the functionality and appearance of their app, they are wrong. Ditto for airlines if they believe they are in competition only with rival airlines. In an increasingly connected world, argues Goodwin, consumers’ expectations are being set by the best experience anywhere. He says: “Increasingly, when we experience something amazing, it sets the bar for everyone. You get off the plane in Shanghai and you can see your Uber driver’s face and his name and […]
Moneysoft calls on financial planners to help clients understand their expenditure following Royal Commission revelations
Financial planners need to broaden their role and help clients understand their household expenses in the wake of the Royal Commission’s damning revelations. Australian households have racked up record levels of debt as interest rates have been cut to historic lows in recent years, but the Commission heard that most lenders still over-rely on the poverty-level HEM benchmark that underestimates true living costs. “The Financial Services Royal Commission has raised many disturbing issues across the banking and advice industry. It will inevitably lead to widespread and much-needed reform,” said Moneysoft CEO Peter Malekas. “However, we shouldn’t wait for the final report in 2019 to reassess as an industry, what we […]
Big bank-backed Beem It launches Aussie payments app
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the National Australia Bank (NAB), and Westpac in October announced that they would be joining forces to create Beem It, an organisation focused on payments, but behaving like a startup. While the project has been in the works for a few months, Beem It quietly launched in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store earlier this year, allowing the use of the app since the beginning of May. The app enables sending and receiving money, with an interface reminiscent of a social media app. “We’re going to do pay, request, and split better than anyone else does in the market,” Beem […]
How the bank can beat fintechs
According to the Millennial Disruption Index, 71 per cent of young people would prefer go to the dentist than listen to their bank. Perhaps even more worrying for the banks is that 75 per cent would prefer to access their financial services from start-ups. It is not just the younger generation that feels this way. According to research from TransferWise’s Future of Finance Report 2017, Australians of all ages are among the most likely to seek alternatives to the mainstream banks. We’re also early adopters of fintech solutions. The same report revealed that 53 per cent of Australians already use an alternative financial service provider (one that’s not part of […]
