Samsung Pay adds 38 more banks and credit unions in Australia
Almost two million more Australians will be able to use their smartphone as a credit card today in a move Samsung promised would take the country “a step closer” to ditching traditional wallets entirely. The smartphone giant will add 38 financial institutions to its Samsung Pay app, allowing customers from Credit Union Australia, Australian Unity and more to pay by tapping their smartphone or smartwatch at the cash register. Samsung Pay, which launched one year ago, is still trailing its Apple and Google rivals, but all three now offer payments from more than 40 institutions. Samsung Australia mobile division vice-president Richard Fink said the latest deal, secured with payment solutions […]
Tyro sticks to strategy as CEO Gerd Schenkel exits
It was back to business at Tyro Payments yesterday after the fintech elder severed links with chief executive Gerd Schenkel, who was hired amid great fanfare only eight months with a mission to transform Tyro into an SME bank. Tyro’s decision to target the poorly serviced SME sector was prompted by non-executive director and Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. Cannon-Brookes scolded his fellow board members for lacking ambition and being happy to live off the fat from unlisted Tyro’s payments platform, which generates $8 million-plus in earnings from servicing the EFTPOS requirements of its 18,000 small business customers. Instead of telling him to go jump, the board agreed. Tyro secured a […]
Success of innovation in Australia’s Financial Services lies in collaboration, not competition
Capgemini, a global leader in consulting, technology and outsourcing services, today announced the findings of a report published by The Australian Digital Transformation Lab, a joint venture between the University of Sydney Business School and Capgemini. The report finds that while Financial Technology (Fintech) firms are seeking to disrupt the larger players, moving forward, the opportunity in financial services is based on collaboration rather than competition. The emerging Fintech industry and Australia’s traditional banking sector are being urged to work together in order to innovate in ways that allow them to survive the looming threat posed by so called ‘Big Tech’ companies such as Apple and Amazon. It is therefore […]
Fintech a vertical integration disruptor – ASIC
Vertical integration, particularly with respect to the major banks, is likely to be eroded by financial service technology, according to Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chairman, Greg Medcraft. Giving evidence before Senate Estimates, Medcraft said he believed the banks were starting to realise that owning something and cross-selling was probably not a viable strategy anymore. Asked by Tasmanian Green Senator, Peter Whish-Wilson whether vertical integration was being addressed in line with the recommendations of the Murray Review, Medcraft said he believed progress was being made. Whish-Wilson also asked whether the financial services technology changes had been a factor in ANZ’s decision to exit some of its wealth management business. […]
Moroku’s distribution deal aimed at small merchants overlooked by banks
As fintech niches like lending and payments rapidly become commoditised, the addition of value-added services is a prerequisite for survival. Local fintech Moroku’s distribution deal for its advanced point-of-sale software Marrakash is the latest example. Marrakash’s value for AEVI, a subsidiary of the world’s biggest ATM and POS supplier Diebold Nixdorf of Germany, is not so much vanilla payments as the software’s ability to integrate business, products, customers and payments systems into a single platform. It enables small to medium-sized businesses in the food and hospitality, retail and financial services industries to display a full product catalogue, create customer loyalty schemes and take secure card payments on the go. The […]
NAB makes play for digital wallets
National Australia Bank will soon announce the next stage of the digital wallet market by launching an Android Pay service. NAB is said to be close to quitting the consortium of banks that unsuccessfully pitched to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission to collectively negotiate with Apple, forcing the tech giant to open up the iPhone’s near-field communication antenna to their own digital wallets. With the competition watchdog having determined that collective negotiations were likely to reduce or distort competition, the suggestion is that NAB, like ANZ, is ready to go its own way and do a deal with Apple. The truth is that NAB is edging closer to an […]
What’s holding up the blockchain?
It’s not technology or regulation holding back the blockchain – software that stores and transfers value or data across the internet – we just haven’t figured out the next big use-case. Two reports released this week by the CSIRO’s Data61 not only inject some well-researched gravitas into the conversation, they also provide insight into why some of the major blockchain projects have stalled. Since 2015, banks, regulators, tech giants and startups all over the world have raised billions of dollars to explore the blockchain. But the only really successful, scaleable use of the blockchain remains cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Bitcoins currently trade at almost AU$4,000, with a total market equivalent to […]
Open banking start-up Basiq snares funding from Westpac and NAB
The venture capital funds of Westpac Banking Corp and National Australia Bank have co-invested in Basiq, a start-up that scrapes financial data from bank webpages to help fintechs compete with incumbent banks. Taking advantages of the government’s moves to create an economy where data moves more openly, it plans to morph into a new banking platform that uses “application programming interfaces” (APIs, or software connecting computers) to improve customer experience of financial services. The seed investment by Reinventure Group, Westpac’s venture capital fund, and NAB Ventures comes after Treasurer Scott Morrison said in last month’s budget an “open banking” regime would be created, liberating customer banking data. The Productivity Commission, […]
