Innovation – NSW innovation minister says he will deliver three things the startup community is pleading for
He says one of the flagship policies of the state government last year was the establishment of a “world first” government data analytics centre facilitating data sharing between government agencies and allowing for the analysis of the effectiveness of policies. Dominello says the better use of public data can also assist with one of the booming startup sectors in the state: fintech. With Stone & Chalk and the Tyro co-working space, Sydney is leading the way with fintech startups, and Dominello wants it to stay that way. “We’re already the centre in south-easy Asia for banking and finance, so the fintech sector in particular is very, very strong,” he says. […]
New fintech platform to ‘take business from brokers’
A former major bank executive will launch a new fintech business this year to compete directly with the third-party channel on prime mortgages. Mark Bevan, who spent 25 years at CBA and six with Westpac, is the co-founder of Joust, an online platform that allows lenders to compete for home loan deals through a live digital auction process. The platform involves a panel of lenders bidding (or jousting) to be the provider of a customer’s home loan. The Adelaide-based fintech business aims to target prime mortgage customers with good credit ratings, good jobs and equity in their homes. Source: New fintech platform to ‘take business from brokers’ – Mortgage Business
Fiserv and Alpha Payments Cloud Partner on Cost Effective Solution to Connect to Real-Time Payments in Australia – Press Release
Alpha Payments Cloud, a global leader in providing third party payment, risk and commerce solution access to international banks and merchants, has today announced a partnership with Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions. The partnership will provide Australian banks with a simpler and faster way to process payments in Australia while also generating significantly more value through the addition of overlay services through the AlphaHub Payments as a Service platform. The AlphaHub introduces Australian banks to an entirely new middleware layer that provides frictionless access to overlay services instantly, significantly speeding up the introduction of new functionalities. Accessing these new functionalities through the AlphaHub’s considerable […]
Fintech revolution a bank threat
Bank bashing is an old sport usually practised by external critics, but 2016 could be the year when big banks discover that their greatest threat comes from within – something that should concern bank shareholders as much as employees. Technology lies at the heart of what’s happening in the banking world; and some of the smartest people in the industry are voting with their feet, quitting old-style banks for the new generation of ‘fintech’ companies. At the core of the fintech revolution lies the appeal of faster and better computer systems, coupled with the attraction of a new business run by hand-picked tech-savvy staff, a structure that attracts less government […]
Auswide Bank lends $60m, takes 20pc in MoneyPlace
Auswide Bank is offering $60 million in personal loans over five years via fledgling peer-to-peer lender MoneyPlace along with a 20 per cent stake in the start-up to boost its personal loans to younger borrowers. Martin Barrett, the managing director of the small, listed Queensland bank, which has a loan book of about $2.4 billion, said it had been in talks with MoneyPlace about investing in and via the platform for about a year while it was seeking its credit licence from the corporate watchdog. “What the P2P guys have to offer is something that is more advanced and capable than what we would be able to put into the […]
RBA governor Glenn Stevens backs blockchain and tech disruptors
The blockchain technology that underpins controversial crypto-currency bitcoin could bring significant benefits to the global banking system, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Glenn Stevens said. Speaking in his regular year-end interview with The Australian Financial Review, Mr Stevens said it was important for banks to figure out how the technology could be used to create broader efficiencies in the financial system. The words of support from a high-profile central banker will be welcomed by banks and start-ups around the world, which are working to develop applications for the relatively new technology. Blockchain is a digital record of transactions spread across separate computers designed to withstand tampering even by the people […]
Westpac trials Prospa tie-up
It is great to see that the big banks in Australia are starting to support our FinTech companies. Lets hope that the this announcement encourages some of the other banks to get in and trial a partnership with an up and coming technology. Westpac has begun quietly trialling a partnership with online small business lender Prospa, signalling a growing willingness by the big four banks to embrace working with the rapidly emerging “fintech” industry. Source: Westpac trials Prospa tie-up
Profit prize of $800m awaits successful mortgage market ‘disrupter’
There’s an $800 million profit prize should a new player achieve the difficult task of replicating the success of supermarket discounter Aldi in the $1.5 trillion mortgage market, according to analysts. As the dust settles on the major banks’ results season, experts are increasingly mulling whether conditions are as good as they get and how vulnerable the industry is to the horde of new “fintech” disrupters and larger players with plenty of capital to deploy. Westpac chief Brian Hartzer was yesterday grilled on whether the banks were setting themselves up for similar pain being felt by Woolworths, once one of the most profitable supermarkets globally, by propping up margins for […]
