Robo-adviser Six Park launches with Brian Watson, Lindsay Tanner and Paul Costello on Advisory Board
Australia’s pre-eminent financial experts have joined the next generation of automated financial advice providers with the launch of robo-adviser Six Park. Six Park’s team includes former Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner, founding chief of the Future Fund Paul Costello and Six Park co-founder and former J.P. Morgan Australia Chairman Brian Watson on the company’s Advisory Board. Six Park has raised $1.4 million in seed funding pre-launch and combines the use of cutting edge technology with more than 100 years of investment expertise and wisdom led by co-founders Patrick Garrett (CEO) and Mr Watson (Chairman of Advisory Board). Independently-owned and operating in beta-mode for over a year to […]
Ripoll joins robo-advice board
Former Federal Labor MP, Bernie Ripoll has been appointed as a director of robo-advice focused group, Map My Plan. Ripoll, who was integral to a number of Parliamentary Committee inquiries into the financial planning industry, departed the Parliament this year and described his decision to become a director as reflecting his desire to continue to be involved in the advice sector. “FinTech is clearly having a transformative effect on financial services and the way the industry meets customer needs,” Ripoll said. Joining Map My Plan gives me the opportunity to help bring great advice to the majority of Australians currently missing out and to do something positive with my years […]
Stone & Chalk hopes interstate foray can spread innovation
In the intensely competitive world of fintech, it’s hard to overstate the benefit for Brand NSW from the ultra-low-cost Stone & Chalk hub, which aims to spread its tentacles to Melbourne before the end of the year. Sydney is already jostling for attention with global fintech destinations such as Silicon Valley, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore and Hong Kong — a status it’s achieved with the paltry investment of $2 million raised from the state government and industry. This column, however, has always advocated a national approach, which is why it’s so important that the rubber is starting to hit the road in Victoria. By the end of September, funding will […]
Banking faces massive disruption by fintech says IBM
A new study argues that as the traditional functions of banks become commoditised, value is moving from transactions to relationships. Unfortunately for banks, they face competition from small start-ups and enormous, cashed-up tech giants inserting themselves directly into the relationship with their customers. IBM’s Institute for Business Value has released a fintech report called “Banking at the Brink”, which identifies the finance industry as sitting square in the centre of a perfect disruptive storm. The Institute calls out three challenges. Banks are still struggling with sluggish profits in the aftermath of the Great Recession. A new type of customer, easily dissatisfied and disillusioned, has ever-growing expectations of engagement and improved […]
Big banks face big risk of losing customers
Australia’s big banks face a huge risk of losing their most valuable customers to their fintech rivals, new research has shown. According to an analysis conducted by Centre for Social Economics and Roy Morgan Research, the big bank customers most likely to churn, instead turning to tech-savvy fintech providers, are their “most valuable customers”. The fintech phenomenon, according to Roy Morgan, taps into a new consumer mindset – called the Desire Economy – where 64% would prefer never to go into a traditional bank branch. Ever again. Consumers in the Desire Economy are younger, well educated, tech-adopting, urban dwellers. Forty percent are early adopters of technology compared to only 5% […]
Craig Steven Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto – Maybe, the Leader of the Team
Have you already bought into the idea of Craig Steven Wright being Satoshi Nakamoto? There is a growing voice saying not so fast! Indeed, the shadow of doubt is growing every passing moment as members of the Bitcoin community pour over the evidence that he has put on the table. This can be witnessed on various Bitcoin forums, such as the Bitcoin subReddit, where some enthusiasts are expressing their disbelief. They could be wrong. They could right. Who knows at this point? Andreas M. Antonopoulos is one of those who have come out to question the validity of Craig Steven Wright’s claims. The author of Mastering Bitcoin, a Bitcoin security […]
Australian FinTech Opens up Vast Opportunities for ICT Companies
Sydney, Australia, 23 May 2016 – Australia’s development as a leader in Fintech innovation will require concerted effort from government agencies and established financial institutions and will involve partnerships and research collaboration between banks and startups. It will also present many diverse and lucrative growth and development opportunities for ICT companies that will help form the necessary ecosystem for a leading Fintech market. Data and connection security will be the most significant challenge for Fintech companies in Australia; largely because mobile payments make up the majority of the revenues of all the Fintech segments. Reliable security will be a key issue and an important selling point to ensure success as […]
DigitalX announces deal with global telco Telefónica
ASX ANNOUNCEMENT: DigitalX Limited (ASX:DCC and “the Company”) is pleased to announce that Telefónica Internacional S.A.U. (“Telefónica”) is the Company’s first strategic partner in Latin America following the successful integration of the DigitalX AirPocket App into Telefónica’s network. The mobile phone giant signed a marketing, distribution and sales agreement with DigitalX, which was announced to the market via the ASX on 17 February 2016, that will give Telefónica’s Latin American customers access to DigitalX’s unique value transfer and remittance application, AirPocket. Telefónica, which has nearly 232 million telecommunication access points in Latin America, is one of the largest telcos in the region and is among the top five biggest telecommunications […]