PayPal allows sending money by voice via Siri on iPhone
PayPal has announced you can send contacts money simply by asking Siri on your iPhone. You can now use commands such as “Hey, Siri, send John $20 using PayPal”. PayPal says the feature is available from now in 30 countries including Australia with the latest version of the PayPal app. “With so many P2P transactions happening during such a busy season, we’re excited to give our users an early holiday present,” PayPal says in a blogpost today. PayPal is not the first company to offer sending money by voice. Amazon lets you buy certain items from its store using its Amazon Echo home robot. However the robot is not officially […]
Australia Post’s digital future rises from disruption as it embraces blockchain
Australia Post has been talking up its identity expertise for months and will soon launch a new mobile digital identity platform that could be a vital element of secure digital commerce. The digital service will allow people to verify their identity in just a few minutes via smartphone using biometric data. The technology will be robust enough to allow individuals to apply for a passport or mortgage by mobile and could become a new growth business for the national utility. “How do I know you’re who you say you are if I’m dealing with you on the computer?” Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour asks BOSS. “Solving this is one […]
Australia’s banks don’t fear FinTech threat
Australia’s major financial services providers are not worried about the threat posed by emerging financial technology (FinTech) players and believe FinTech will be positive for the industry overall. A survey of financial marketers conducted by Yell Creative found that 98% of marketers believe FinTech is a positive and just 32% think it is a threat. Yell managing director Nigel Roberts said the company predicts that Australian FinTechs will eventually be swallowed up by the larger, more established companies. “While there is a thriving FinTech community in Australia, we feel their impact will likely be more limited than in other global markets,” he said. “Australia has one of the strongest established […]
How ASIC and the Australian government can kindle the fintech boom
Australia is beginning to enjoy the benefits of a fintech boom, but for this emerging industry to grow properly it needs infrastructure support. Without it, we’re at risk of seeing Aussie fintechs left behind as overseas players dominate the Australian and Asian landscape. There have been some welcome initiatives recently, like ASIC introducing a regulatory sandbox for start-ups to trial new ideas. But compared to other governments around the world, Australia doesn’t have the political support to turn this industry into a powerhouse. That’s a huge missed opportunity. Research from Frost & Sullivan predicts the Australian fintech market will add $1 billion in value by 2020. Missing out on this […]
Apple Pay coming to millions in Australia with Cuscal signing credit union deal
Up to 4 million Australians can soon start using Apple Pay following a deal between Apple and a body representing smaller banks and credit unions. Customers with debit and credit accounts held with 31 financial bodies will be able to use Apple Pay to make retail payments from their iPhone following a deal with payments provider Cuscal. A Cuscal spokesman said a starting date for the service was yet to be announced. The agreement does not include many of Cuscal’s industry partners and a number of credit unions but it does include 31 credit unions and banks. The list includes Credit Union Australia, Bank of Sydney, Horizon Credit Union, Police […]
Entersoft carries flag for Australia in finals of major Asian accelerator
A leading Brisbane-based cyber security provider is the only Australian company to have been selected to take part in a prestigious Hong Kong-based accelerator program, which aims to help promising start-ups and scale-ups grow in Asia. On Monday night, Entersoft was selected as one of eight finalists from 200 applicants located in 33 countries who wanted to be part of the SuperCharger FinTech 2.0 initiative in 2017. Each of the finalists will now participate in a 12-week program, to be held in early next year, which includes bespoke learning and working closely with a network of industry partners and mentors. It’s a significant win for Entersoft, which was founded by […]
Australian Fintech Credit Savvy Grows to 200,000 Members
Growth continues to accelerate for credit reputation website, Credit Savvy, which announced today that it has reached 200,000 Australian users. The website provides Australians with free access to their Experian credit score, monthly score updates, a knowledge centre to learn about credit and a comparison tool that lets users research and consider hundreds of home loans, credit cards and personal loans. Nearly 2 million free credit scores have been given away to the Credit Savvy member base in the past 18 months. [1] Managing Director, Dirk Hofman said, “It’s great to see that awareness of credit scores has really increased in the past year and it’s humbling to think we’ve […]
Stone & Chalk says the new paradigm is outside-in innovation
It should come as no surprise that Alex Scandurra, chief executive officer Stone & Chalk, is a passionate advocate of collaboration: the raison d’être, justification, objective and mission statement of Stone & Chalk is to help foster and accelerate the development of world-leading fintech start-ups, by leveraging greater collaboration between stakeholders in the fintech eco-system. Stone & Chalk itself is a collaborative effort between fintech entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC) firms, companies, academia and government, to incubate and nurture financial services-focused tech start-ups in ways not seen in Australia before. “Collaboration is at the core of what we do, and it’s one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to […]
