Samsung Pay now available for CommBank customers
From today Commonwealth Bank Mastercard customers will have access to Samsung Pay. The contactless payment platform enables CBA customers to make payments via compatible Samsung phones and wearables. CommBank already offers Android Pay but not Apple Pay. Research released this week suggested smartphones users’ loyalty to their devices was influencing their choice of banks. In a company statement, Samsung said the new partnership with CBA demonstrates their commitment “to making mobile wallets an everyday reality for millions of Australians.” To use the app CBA customers must load their Mastercard debit and credit card information to the Samsung Pay digital wallet. However the app creates a “tokenised card number” for users […]
Seasoned Executive is appointed CEO of leading Fintech Macrovue
AMP-backed fintech Macrovue is pleased to announce today it has appointed Rod Bristow as CEO. Rod is a former Chief Operating Officer and alternate Managing Director of Australia’s largest online stockbroker CommSec. Most recently he was Managing Director and CEO of Infocus Wealth Management – a national financial advice, asset management and technology group. In these roles, Rod led large teams to drive substantial growth organically and via mergers and acquisitions. Macrovue will retain the expertise and capability of Founder Dr Sid Sahgal, who will move into the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer. This strategic move will provide substantial depth of capability for Macrovue to deliver on its […]
Bank-in-an-app startup Pelikin has launched a crowfunding equity raise
Pelikin, a banking alternative designed for digital natives, today launched a $400,000 equity raise on crowdfunding platform Birchal. The fintech startup is founded by 28-year-old Sam Brown, who wants to disrupt traditional retail banking with a more efficient way to manage money in Australia and while travelling abroad. Pelikin users will be able to control and spend in multiple currencies at once, all from the one app and with one debit card, as well as transfer money to other Pelikin users instantly and free. “We’re not ex bankers who’ve had an epiphany that the retail banking world needs to change; we’re frustrated, everyday banking customers who are dedicated to making […]
Peer to Peer lending increasingly popular in Australia
Australian investors and borrowers are increasingly adopting peer to peer lending platforms according to the results of survey undertaken by ASIC. The results of the survey suggest that as much as $300 million of personal and business loans were underwritten by peer to peer lenders over the course of the last fiscal year. That represents a doubling in the amount that was lent on such platforms during the 2015/2016 financial year. Peer to peer will continue to grow John Price ASIC Commissioner says the results of the survey suggest that growth of such lending marketplaces will continue to grow as Australians seek out the best deals and interest rates on […]
Acorns to launch its own superannuation product
The micro-investment app’s new super product, Acorns Grow Australia Super, will be available from March. Micro-investment platform Acorns has today announced it will launch its own super product to sit within its existing app. The Acorns app is popular with Australians, particularly millennials, for its simple approach to investing by rounding up everyday transactions and adding the loose change into an investment portfolio on their behalf. The super product, Acorns Grow Australia Super, will follow in the same footsteps aiming to simplify superannuation. Managing director of Acorns George Lucas said the new super product, like the existing investment product, has been built with young Australians in mind. “We see younger […]
Lord Mayor of London praises Australia’s “flourishing” fintech scene, plugs support for new ‘bridge’
In a rare visit to Australia last week, the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Charles Bowman, expressed his full support for the upcoming fintech ‘bridge’ between Australia and UK and praised the local fintech scene as being almost on par with renowned fintech hub London. Speaking to a packed room at co-working and tech startup space York Butter Factory in Melbourne on February 15, Bowman discussed how Australia is the UK’s fifth largest trade partner, but there was always room to explore new channels of trade. Bowman and his cohort were in Australia in the wake of Britain’s controversial Brexit vote to explore new partnerships and strengthen existing ones. Some […]
Digital bank startup Xinja can now offer housing loans, and getting one will take ‘about 20 minutes’
Digital bank startup Xinja is planning to offer home loans soon after winning an Australian Credit Licence from ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission). It’s an important step forward for Xinja which is raising money under new equity crowdfunding legislation and aims to become a full-service digital bank built in Australia but without the legacy structures and costs associated with more traditional financial services companies. “This allows use to give mortgages, to lend and give credit,” Xinja chief executive Eric Wilson told Business Insider. “We are raising our very first mortgages in late March early April. By May-June we will bring our first fully digital product online. “We are bringing […]
Verrency emphasizes commitment to Fintech partners with new partnership arm and leadership appointments
Australian global payments platform Verrency has appointed two experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to drive its partnership strategy to ensure fintech partners and financial institutions get the best value from the API platform. Eddie Wilson and AJ Milne have been named to lead V+, the official partnership arm of Verrency. V+ is designed to leverage Verrency’s behind-the-scenes, enterprise-grade, curated-API platform to generate opportunities for payment-enabled Fintechs around the world. While Verrency has already begun signing up Fintech partners over the last few months, these appointments demonstrate Verrency’s clear commitment to bringing the best of Fintechs to financial institutions. Wilson has been immersed in the emerging business community for many years. […]
