Fintech platform ‘wasn’t trying to disrupt’ broking industry
The CEO of a fintech platform that sparked controversy in the broker channel has said that the company never intended to disrupt the mortgage broking industry, but instead “bring innovation” to it. Speaking at a fintech event in Sydney earlier this week, Vince Turner, the founder and CEO of the digital mortgage service uno., clarified the platform’s intentions and thoughts regarding the third-party channel. Mr Turner said: “As far as the distribution of mortgages and mortgage broking, it’s an industry that I wasn’t trying to disrupt, but to bring innovation to. “We’ve already brought a wealth of innovation to the industry, and this is how [we] feel like it should […]
iSelect trials three-hour digital home loan
ASX-listed iSelect is trialling a new digital home loan process that lets home buyers get conditional approval for a home loan in three hours from multiple lenders, without needing to visit a bank or fill out paperwork. The technology is the first in Australia that digitises the home loan application process and can present offers from multiple lenders, however many of the banks offer a digital service for their own loans. Macquarie Bank, ING and Australian Finance Group are trialling iSelect’s new service, but the business has plans to do a full rollout in 2017. The new service is part of iSelect’s transition to become a “life admin” business, and […]
Afterpay and zipMoney: New instalment of old idea gains momentum
Fellow veterans of the “brown paper and string” era may recall lay-by, the instalment schemes offered by retailers before those plastic works of the devil called bank cards came along. At the risk of going all Bernard Salt on readers, the smashed avocado generation would be aghast to learn that customers of yore were required to put down a deposit on the item, but did not receive the goods until they paid the agreed instalments. What’s old is new again, and now lay-by is being reverse-engineered in the guise of point-of-sale retail intermediaries that finance “no-interest” payment instalment schemes. The key difference is they are “buy now, pay later” schemes […]
Prospa takes first place in Smart50 Awards
Prospa took out first place at the Smart50 Awards in Melbourne last night. The Awards recognise Australia’s top 50 fastest growing SMEs and were dominated by fintechs and retailers. Prospa was awarded first place with incredible growth of more than 1000% over the past three years. “We are thrilled to be named #1 in Australia,” said Beau Bertoli, Joint CEO of Prospa. “Winning demonstrates that we understand the finance needs of small businesses. However this is just the beginning of our journey. We’ll continue to innovate and create ground breaking finance experiences to help Australian small businesses succeed.” “We’re the leading online lender to small business […]
This Australian fintech startup uses new identification technology and wants to bust open the small business loan market
An Australian fintech startup is going all-in with a unique algorithm that it says will revolutionise the business lending market. Sail Funding’s big data application analysis, with inputs from third-party databases and applicant-provided information, allows the startup to make customers a loan offer that is tuned to the applicant’s risk profile. This means less chance of rejections and less chance of sub-optimal borrowing terms. “Being rejected for a loan can be catastrophic but having to put up your home or car as collateral also causes significant personal challenges,” said Sail founder and chief executive Yanir Yakutiel, who will launch the venture in Sydney on Tuesday. “By using our proprietary algorithm […]
Banks team up with their FinTech competitors
These are challenging times for the incumbent heavyweights of the financial services sector. Beset by regulatory, governance, technological, capital, and investment issues, they are increasingly facing competition for business from a whole host of new players, primarily from ‘FinTechs’. Growth of marketplace lending In the case of online lenders, this trend began in the UK in the mid-2000s when Zopa, the world’s first digital and now Europe’s largest peer-to-peer (now called marketplace) provider, launched, quickly followed by the likes of Prosper, Lending Club, and OnDeck in the US. Eleven years on, Zopa has lent around 1.8 billion pounds to more than 150,000 borrowers funded by 63,000 investors of whom 53,000 […]
LoanDolphin completes $1.1 million seed funding
LoanDolphin, Australia’s leading loan bidding platform, has successfully raised a total of $1.1 million from key investors to expand its presence in major capital cities in a bid to claim a stake in Australia’s $1.5 trillion home loan market. Strategic investor Barry Lambert provided $1 million, with the remainder from fintech investment firm H2 Ventures. Mr Lambert founded Count Financial in 1980 and sold the company to Commonwealth Bank in 2011 for $373 million. The seed funding values the Sydney-based fintech startup at $5 million post capital raising rounds. LoanDolphin is a free online platform for people to refinance or obtain new home loans at rates […]
EY FinTech Australia Census 2016
FinTech Australia and EY Sweeney release the most comprehensive analysis of Australia’s fintech ecosystem to date, the EY FinTech Australia Census 2016 FinTech Australia and EY Sweeney are today releasing the inaugural EY FinTech Australia Census 2016, the most comprehensive and detailed report on the Australian fintech industry to date. The research was formally launched in Melbourne today by EY’s Anita Kimber at FinTech Australia’s national summit, Collab/Collide 2016 in partnership with LaunchVic. This significant piece of research was commissioned by FinTech Australia as part of their efforts to foster a thriving fintech ecosystem in Australia. The report identifies important characteristics of the Australian fintech industry, and establishes a set […]
