Andrew Thorburn explains the fintech forces reshaping NAB
The emergence of fintech has fundamentally changed National Australia Bank’s strategy and the thinking of its chief executive, Andrew Thorburn. He’s deploying more start-up lingo, and said last week the nation’s largest business lender is no longer benchmarking its performance against its rival banks, but rather technology players. Thorburn and his newish tech chief, Patrick Wright, who was previously with Barclays in the United States, went to Seattle and Silicon Valley last month and met with Amazon, Microsoft and Google for some inspiration. Like the tech giants themselves, NAB is pumping up technology spending with sums that would make wannabe disrupters salivate. With a plethora of start-ups nipping at NAB’s […]
Westpac says fintech partnerships paying off
Westpac’s $100 million investment in the Reinventure venture capital fund is paying off for the bank, according to group CEO Brian Hartzer. Reinventure has made 20 investments in areas including distributed ledger technology, payments, data analytics, digital currencies, social networking and P2P lending. Those investments are increasingly a strategic asset for Westpac, Hartzer told a briefing on the bank’s first half results. “These investments have helped build Westpac’s reputation as a good partner for fintech companies and this is now paying off in our core business,” the CEO said. He cited as an example the launch in April of Presto Smart, which integrates point-of-sale systems with merchant payment terminals. “Presto […]
CBA reveals promising regtech AI results, proceeds with caution
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has revealed the results of a regtech pilot that uses natural language processing and artificial intelligence to convert regulatory texts into compliance obligations. Speaking on Thursday at the AI NSW Summit in Sydney, the head of CBA’s London Innovation Lab, Supun King-Jayawardana, said the technology was able to crunch regulation documents into actionable compliance with a “genuinely surprising” 95 per cent accuracy. The experiment – carried out in partnership with Dutch bank ING and overseen by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – applied AI technology from Chicago fintech firm Ascent Technologies to the 1.5 million paragraphs in a piece of banking regulation: Markets […]
Wisr, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank announce $25m wholesale loan funding agreement
Australian neo-lender Wisr Limited (ASX: WZR) today announced a $25 million wholesale funding agreement with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited. The agreement will see Bendigo and Adelaide Bank provide a facility to fund existing and future loans and increase Wisr’s consumer loan book capacity, as well as improving the opportunity for revenue generation and operational performance. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank is Australia’s fifth-largest retail bank and a top ASX-60 listed company. It has a range of operations in consumer and business financial solutions, third-party banking and wealth services, and agribusiness. Wisr provides an innovative and secure platform to facilitate loans between funder investors and consumer borrowers. Anthony Nantes, Chief Executive […]
Bank KYC/AML compliance is broken, and blockchain can fix it
Not only is decentralisation the best solution. It might be the only solution. One of the least-sustainable trends in existing financial services is hidden away in the background. Compliance costs, which refers to the cost of handling legal obligations such as KYC/AML, are a growing stone in the shoes of financial services. And it’s growing extremely quickly. According to Thomson Reuters, the number of compliance professionals increased 3.5 times from 2016 to 2017, while financial institutions are pouring billions into transaction-monitoring systems designed to target suspicious behaviour, like frequent large cash deposits. No one’s entirely sure where these investments will end. At a time when new technology is cutting costs […]
Suncorp launches Apple Pay for Visa debit cards
Suncorp customers now have the choice of Apple Pay, Google Pay or Samsung Pay to tap and go. If you have a Suncorp debit card, you can now use your Apple device to tap and pay at the checkout thanks to a new partnership with Apple Pay. Once you’ve linked your card, you can hold your iPhone or smartwatch against the contactless card reader at the checkout and use your biometric Touch ID (your fingerprint) or PIN to authorise a transaction. Each transaction is also authorised with a one-time unique dynamic security code. Apple Pay is built into your Apple Wallet on your device, so you just need to add […]
ANZ sees dramatic uptake in digital wallet payments
Almost $600m in six-month period. ANZ Bank customers made almost $600 million in mobile payments during the first half of fiscal year 2018. The bank said today that customers completed more than 18.5 million mobile payment transactions in the half, an increase of 156 percent on the previous corresponding period. ANZ said the transactions were made from mobile wallet services from Apple, Samsung, Google, Fitbit and Garmin, as well as the bank’s own mobile pay service. CEO Shayne Elliott credited the bank’s investment in mobile services as well as the 2016 establishment of its digital bank division – overseen by former Google executive Maile Carnegie. Elliott said ANZ’s mobile app […]
SelfWealth growing in the face of finance industry’s woes
The banking royal commission is currently underway and it’s fair to say that the stories emerging are nothing short of shocking. There’s endless tales of woeful and deceitful financial advice — so bad in fact that that it has even led to families losing their homes. It’s also come to light that for years financial planning groups have been unlawfully deducting service fees from customer accounts, even falsifying documents. The disturbing findings coming out of the banking royal commission should encourage many Australian investors to take more control over their investments and financial wellbeing. Amidst this turmoil has emerged an innovative solution for people wanting to take control of their […]
