Banks still beat fintech firms on trust
Australia’s big banks have some breathing room compared to global markets when it comes to financial technology competitors but more needs to be done, according to a new report into world banking trends. Australia is slightly behind when it comes to picking up financial tech products, but those using them are far more likely to recommend them to friends, according to a 2016 World Retail Banking Report. The report suggested real strength could be found in collaborations between tech firms and banks. “Where they (banks) were strong in some areas, fintechs were strong in others and there was a real opportunity to partner,” Sharon Rode of consultancy firm Capgemeni told […]
Data sharing struggles between banks and fintechs
Fintech companies want your Internet banking logins. Banks don’t want you to give it to them. Find out why the answer isn’t as simple as security. The issue of data crops up time and time again in the fintech market. Whether it’s the banks not sharing their data, fintech companies not providing enough protection of the data they’re asking for, or discussion of the myriad data that waits to be taken advantage of by fintech opportunists. With data being such a hot commodity, it should come as no surprise that the only thing that is not happening with data is sharing. In a recent article in the Australian Financial Review, […]
Apple Pay may be coming to Australian banks
Reports have emerged that ANZ Bank are currently testing Apple Pay’s paymemt technology. Although the mobile payment service was launched in Australia late last year, only American Express card holders were able to access the service. Neither tech giant Apple, nor ANZ bank have confirmed the speculation, however some bank customers are reportedly receiving confirmation emails and text messages that suggest the bank is testing both Apple and Android Pay functionality. On the other hand, on a recently blog post, Google has said that its service, Android Pay was coming to Australian banks, including ANZ, St. George and Westpac “some time in the first half of 2016.” Source: East & […]
Fintech threatens Australia’s biggest banks – Roy Morgan Research
The global fintech phenomenon threatens Australia’s traditional banks by stealing their most valuable customers. This new digital market is growing exponentially leaving traditional banks looking dangerously like commodity utilities. According to Accenture investment in fintech grew globally by 201% in 2014. [1] Australia has the fifth highest rate of fintech use in the world. [2] Fintech is the digital, often peer-to-peer, channel enabling tech-savvy consumers to borrow or invest without ever having to deal with a traditional bank. In early April Australian peer-to-peer start-up SocietyOne reportedly reached $100m of loans on its digital platform. The burning question for the traditional Australian banks is, which of their customers are most at […]
Forget Melbourne v Sydney, Australian fintech must take a global view
In 1901 there was such a massive spat between Sydneysiders and Melburnians over which city should be capital of the newly federated Australia that a whole new city (and territory) was formed. Fast forward more than 100 years and nothing has really changed. Squabbling continues around everything from which city has the better cuisine to which has the better events. All good, natural competitiveness, but then last year it encroached on one of our most promising industries – the emerging fintech startup ecosystem. This Sydney-Melbourne fintech civil war risked diverting founders and investors away from the global opportunity. Domestic squabbling was followed shortly by another irrational fear of overseas markets […]
Fintech Market Growth to Add A$1 Billion New Value to Australian Economy by 2020
The global Fintech sector exhibited robust growth in 2014 when investment activity tripled to US$12.21 billion from US$4.05 billion in 2013. This activity continued in 2015 with an increase in global funding into Venture Capital (VC) backed Fintech startups. Fintech growth in 2015 was international, and Frost & Sullivan anticipates this international dispersion, as well as the global growth trend to continue with more Fintech companies successfully reaching the exit stage of funding in 2016. In the Asia-Pacific region, Fintech investments were concentrated in Australia, China and Singapore, and in 2015, skyrocketed to reach US$3.46b – a four-fold increase from 2014 to 2015. Asian Fintechs garnered strong support, with funding […]
Banks and fintechs at war over password sharing
Micro investment company Acorns has accused ANZ Banking Group and other banks of telling customers they can’t share account passwords with the start-up, retarding its growth. Fintech Australia, the new lobby group for financial services start-ups, has formed an “open data subcommittee” to push for changes to the ePayments Code to make it clear that bank customers can give passwords to fintechs without banks having to provide approval. Sharing passwords with fintechs is a legal grey area. Acorns, which invests small change in exchange traded funds, lets users see their bank account activity and round up transactions to the nearest dollar. The app then invests the “change” in an investment […]
SocietyOne’s Yetton: loans soar as banks struggle
New SocietyOne chief Jason Yetton says its loan book is healthy despite mixed economic conditions and record loan growth that pushed the nation’s biggest marketplace lender through the $100 million barrier. Mirroring similar trends by other new “fintech” companies, SocietyOne yesterday revealed $30m of new personal loans and agribusiness finance had been written in the first quarter, pushing total lending since August 2012 past $100m. Rival online “peer-to-peer” or “marketplace” lenders, which directly match borrowers with investors, include RateSetter and DirectMoney, which have also been posting record growth. Meanwhile, the banks’ bad debt charges have risen because of the mining slowdown and lending to sectors facing structural challenges, such as […]
