Australia lags on digital banking revolution: Oracle survey
Would you be prepared to give a little-known business access to your most sensitive financial data, if it meant getting a better deal on your home loan? This type of question is set to become increasingly relevant in the coming years, as the big data revolution joins forces with a push for greater competition in banking. Data is one of the most valuable assets in the financial world, and there’s a clear trend towards policies that put more of this value back into the hands of consumers, rather than large corporations. The only catch is that often, the way for consumers to squeeze more value from their data it to […]
How to find out what those strange charges are on your credit card
Credit card bills, with lists of charges from businesses you’ve sure you’ve never heard of, are sometimes harder to translate than an alien message left on a moon circling a distant sun. Stuart Grover founded a company, Look Who’s Charging, in 2016 after puzzling over expenses at his previous business, 3D Printing Studios. He was wasting hours of time trying to reconcile and categorise the often cryptic transactions within the bank feed of his accounting software. “The more research we did the more we realised that this wasn’t just a big problem for small business owners and bookkeepers but that it is also a significant problem for consumers and financial […]
Westpac CEO Brian Hartzer says cashless society is just round the corner
Plenty of intriguing insights about fintech were delivered at The Australian Financial Review’s Banking & Wealth Summit last week. So, here’s a selection of highlights, in no particular order. Brian Hartzer says cash is disappearing from the economy “faster than any of us anticipated”. A recent trip to Copenhagen by the Westpac chief revealed the decline of cash in Denmark is being driven by customers. Danske Bank’s MobilePay is being used by more than 80 per cent of Danes to pay each other, after five years in the market. Hartzer reckons 95 per cent of Westpac transactions will be online or mobile within a decade. Other Westpac bankers are also […]
Australian first in-app tool Free2Spend revolutionises the personal finance management game
Today UBank, Australia’s leading digital bank[1], unveiled Free2Spend, a ground-breaking in-app tool that simplifies budgeting. Designed and built in Australia, the innovative new tool delivers users one number giving a daily spend that adapts in real-time. Free2Spend first asks users to set goals, whether they’re saving for a wedding, investment property or holiday or even just saving in general. Users then input income and fixed expenses, with the tool then using these figures to calculate the daily Free2Spend number or ‘one number’. For example, if you’re saving for a $20,000 car, and you have a monthly income of $5,000 with monthly expenses like rent, utilities and bills of $2,500, Free2Spend […]
Open banking a solution to royal commission lending concerns
The government’s “Open Banking” regime will allow banks to meet stricter requirements to lend responsibly that may flow from the Hayne royal commission, experts say, because it will allow each major bank to get the actual income and expenses data from new customers’ existing banks, avoiding the need to rely on estimates or benchmarks. After the banking royal commission expressed concern about ANZ Banking Group not checking borrower expenses submitted by mortgage brokers, ANZ’s business services head, Nigel Dobson, told The Australian Financial Review Banking & Wealth Summit that open banking will “help us to enhance our responsible lending obligations, as we will have more precision and transparency around a […]
Banks bet on AI to win back regulator, consumer trust
International tech behemoth IBM is expecting a significant boost to its Watson Financial Services division in Australia, with the big four banks turning to artificial intelligence in its IT systems to win back the trust of consumers in the wake of the Hayne royal commission and years of banking scandals. Speaking to The Australian Financial Review from his Astor Place office in New York, IBM vice-president of Watson Financial Services, Marc Andrews, said it was already conducting trials with most of the major banks in the country using its cognitive computer Watson for everything from reducing the strain of regulatory compliance, to overhauling the way the banks detect financial crimes. […]
New Pelikin app fits the bill for globetrotting millennials
Digital banking start-up Pelikin aims to reshape the way people save, send and spend their money in Australia and while travelling abroad. The company’s slogan is “spend like a local”. It will be targeting “digital natives” with its app and debit card. It hopes to launch by mid-2018 and is currently seeking expressions of interest for investment on Birchal, an Australian equity crowdfunding platform. “Acting as a transactional base for funds, Pelikin wants to create a seamless digital experience between everyday banking and travel banking; an important element for a younger market who are known for their tech-savvy and globetrotting lifestyle,” the company explains. It is currently beta testing features […]
Westpac strikes deal with Assembly Payments
Westpac Banking Corp has bought an equity stake in Assembly Payments and will work with the Melbourne-based fintech to integrate the bank’s merchant terminals with customers’ point-of-sale (POS) software, removing the need for transaction amounts to be entered into retailers’ systems twice. For workers in the nation’s restaurants and coffee shops, entering the dollar amount of a transaction into a banking terminal to complete a sale might be a small frustration, but the extra process can add up to real dollars for business owners. Westpac estimates that for a typical Sydney CBD cafe – which completes between 1000 and 1500 transactions a day – the three to five seconds of […]
