Moroku shortlisted for Banking Technology Awards – Top Digital Innovation
Now in their 18th year, the Banking Technology Awards have become established as the premier event recognising excellence, innovation and the use of IT in banking and financial services. The shortlisted companies for this year have just been announced with Moroku recognised for it’s collaboration with Finastra for Top Digital Innovation 2017. This recognises Moroku as one of the world’s top fintechs, separating the company from thousands of companies around the world trying to figure out what is next, highlighting not only the power of the firm’s innovation, but also it’s capacity to scale through distribution. https://awards.bankingtech.com/categoriespt/judged-awards/ This win comes off the back of Finastra , the world’s 3rd largest […]
Melbourne ‘buy now, pay later’ fintech Openpay just raised $10 million and cancelled IPO
Openpay has completed a $10 million capital raising round, and revealed it has cancelled plans for an initial public offering. The $10 million, which was originally marked as a pre-IPO round, came from “a group of investors” that included existing backer Meydan Group, as well as Investec and SL Investments Group. The company did not comment on the reasons for cancelling the IPO plans. Business Insider understands that chief executive Simon Scalzo departed the company in August after less than a year at the helm, with chairperson Avi Schechter currently acting as the public face of the fintech. The latest investment also sees Investec head of emerging companies David Phillips […]
Iliad Solutions & Verrency sign long-term agreement
British-based Iliad Solutions has signed a long-term agreement with global payments innovation provider Verrency for implementation of its highly innovative continuous testing software testing across all aspects of the Verrency service. After a global search earlier this year, Verrency chose Iliad’s t3:Switch solution to support its payments innovation service. Verrency is a new provider on the global scene enabling card issuers and their processors to deliver the latest innovative payment capabilities quickly and cost effectively through their existing payments infrastructure. Verrency Group Chairman and CEO David Link said the choice of Iliad was an easy one, as Verrency had designed all aspects of its business around innovation, […]
How the Rich Invest: Owen Kerr is making huge profits in forex with Pepperstone
Profits at Owen Kerr’s foreign exchange broker Pepperstone have surged in the 2017 financial year, as the company enjoyed a large increase in clients from Asia. Pepperstone’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) surged 99 per cent to a record $96.7 million from $166 million revenue. Net profit for the firm reached $71.2 million after the Melbourne-based company paid about $25 million in tax, documents recently filed with the corporate regulator revealed. The 2017 results were more than double from the previous year, during which Pepperstone had made a net profit of about $34 million from $96 million revenue and EBIT of $48 million. It also means Pepperstone’s valuation could […]
Bitcoin is sliding after bitcoin gold goes live
Bitcoin is trading down 4.5% Wednesday following a split in the cryptocurrency’s blockchain network. Bitcoin gold, the new digital coin formed by the split Tuesday morning, follows the bitcoin-bitcoin cash fork in August. The project website for bitcoin gold is down following a DDoS attack, according to cryptocurrency watcher CoinDesk. The bitcoin community is split over whether forks are good or bad for bitcoin. Bitcoin, the red-hot digital currency up more than 400% this year, was trading down 4.42% Wednesday morning after the blockchain network underpinning the coin split again. As reported by cryptocurrency watcher CoinDesk, bitcoin gold officially split from the bitcoin network Wednesday morning. The new cryptocurrency is a clone of the original bitcoin blockchain, […]
Xinja launches equity crowdfunding with partner Equitise
Crowdfunding is about to become reality with Xinja today unveiling plans that allow everyday Australians to directly join the digital banking revolution through the Equitise crowdfunding platform. Xinja’s full retail crowdfunding round follows the passage of national legislation last month that gave the green light to this form of capital raising. Investors will be able to invest as little as $1,000 in Xinja, with at least $500,000 likely to be injected via crowdfunding into the neobank’s current $10 million-$15 million round. Eric Wilson, the Chief Executive of Xinja, said he is very excited that Australian consumers now have the chance to be ground-floor investors in the digital […]
University of Sydney’s super-fast blockchain gets even faster
World-wide tests reveal Red Belly Blockchain’s impressive speed New global trials have shown the University of Sydney’s super-fast ‘Red Belly Blockchain’ can process financial transactions 50 percent faster than first anticipated – outperforming some market leaders including VISA for world-wide payments. Blockchain technology is best known as technology that underpins Bitcoin. Blockchain is a public ledger allowing secure and almost instantaneous digital transfer of virtual currencies across the world. The ‘Red Belly Blockchain’ is being developed by researchers at the University of Sydney’s School of Information Technologies. Dr Vincent Gramoli, who heads up the Concurrent Systems Research Group developing the blockchain, said trials over the past three months showed the […]
ASIC licensing crackdowns see uptick in robo-advice demand
While one automated advice provider says the demand for automated advice has been relatively steady since the removal of the accountant’s exemption, there have been some small spikes in demand following various compliance crackdowns by ASIC. Speaking to SMSF Adviser, Plenty Plus founder Greg Einfeld said while there has been continued interest in automated advice since Plenty Plus was launched following the removal of the accountant’s exemption, there has been increased interest following some of the surveillance undertaken by the regulator. “Interest has been reasonably constant, certainly when accountants do see that ASIC is doing something, there is a temporary uptick and there have been a number of occasions when […]
