Acorns app hits 100,000 users
In a sign more Australians are looking to invest in their financial futures, over 100,000 users have signed up for micro-investing app Acorns since its launch in Australia in February. Hitting that milestone not only proved the app’s rapid rise in popularity, but it showed a trend among Australians “to look beyond the big four banks for investment and savings opportunities”, Acorns said yesterday. Acorns Australia managing director George Lucas said the app’s success was driven by young Australians who had discovered the benefit of making modest but regular investments, displaying an appetite for fintech innovation that quickly exceeded the growth rate of that experienced comparatively by users in the […]
New fintech fills the void of efficiency and independence for managed accounts
MA Operator, a brand new technology for financial advisers, launched in Sydney today. The firm provides three different services on the same comprehensive platform and low-cost model: A complete service for managed discretionary accounts (MDAs), including risk and compliance management, which replaces numerous systems and processes advisers currently need to use to offer MDAs to clients A complete solution for managed accounts and direct portfolios delivered under the Statement of Advice model; and Software and services for external MDA Operators looking to improve efficiency and scale. MA Operator allows advisers to manage client investments far more easily, removing cost and administration time from a range of processes currently managed under […]
A VC’s perspective on Blockchain opportunities & impacts on Australia
by Victor Jiang, Managing Partner, Sapien Ventures LLP. I was truly honoured to have presented to and judged alongside a distinguished panel (from ANZ, Westpac, UBS, & Northern Trust) and key industry leaders at the inaugural Australian Blockchain Summit 2016 (Melbourne June 28-30th, 2016), and to have a chance to speak about what we felt are the opportunities and impacts of Blockchain on Australia. (The speech was immediately before a pitch/showcase session of 6 excitingly disruptive blockchain startups from USA and Australia, including one dialling in from 3am in their local time!) __________________________________ I’m really excited and honoured to be here, speaking just ahead of some truly exciting startups in the blockchain space. […]
Robo-advice and mobile alerts are the future of banking
New app aimed at reducing trader errors, while Westpac banks on bots. Banks and financial institutions are ramping up competitiveness and improving their mobile offerings in an effort to maintain and assist customers, traders and employees. A new report by US market research company Forrester says banks will increasingly use banking apps to provide money management tips to consumers, the SMH reported. This sentiment has been realised in Australia. A team of behavioural finance and math experts launched the first ever robotic trading coach, PsyQuation. The robo coach provides a feedback loop alert system that points out costly trading mistakes. How traders interact with the alert and the ways in […]
Blockchain: Distributed ledger technology still misunderstood
Blockchain may be the hottest technology trend in town, but business leaders run the risk of falling down a rabbit hole unless they are able to separate fact from fiction, according to Gartner’s research fellow Ray Valdes. While industry buzz around the bitcoin blockchain plus a dozen other competitive technologies has grown to deafening proportions, Mr Valdes warns that a dangerous cocktail of wishful thinking, mythmaking and misunderstanding can confuse the long-term transformative potential of the technology. “The thing about blockchain is that you will find businesses using the term in different ways in the same conversation,” Mr Valdes said. Mr Valdes also warns that the rampant interest in the […]
Why trade finance is a good use case for blockchain
Trade finance is shaping up as one of the most promising early use cases for blockchain technology. The arrival of blockchain is prompting banks to search for analogue processes across the global economy which could be digitised to reduce financing risk. As a cumbersome process using multiple paper-based contracts with settlement typically taking weeks, the $US4 trillion ($5.3 trillion) trade-financing industry is set to be revolutionised by distributed ledger technology in the coming years. Many of the world’s largest banks and various start-ups have been pumping funds into blockchain research and development. They are now branching out of their laboratories to explain the opportunity to customers. In the trade finance […]
Brexit provides lessons for Australia’s FinTech start-ups
[ Extract ] Lessons for Australia Australia’s FinTech scene, scarcely acknowledged eighteen months ago, has developing rapidly and now commands the attention of policymakers, banking executives and the financial media here alike. We have a highly advanced financial services sector, one that is acknowledged globally as mature, skilful and well regulated. It contributes around AU$140 billion to GDP each year and employs some 450,000 people. We have the fourth largest pool of investment funds in the world, anchored by the AU$2 trillion-plus in our nation’s superannuation funds. That a viable FinTech ecosystem has developed Down Under should therefore come as no surprise. Australian start-ups span the FinTech spectrum across peer-to-peer […]
Westpac is the world’s best at mobile banking says Forrester
Westpac is the world leader in mobile banking functionality, according to a global rating from Forrester Research. In Forrester’s annual Global Mobile Banking Benchmark, the bank — one of Australia’s Big Four — scored an impressive 86 out of 100 in the evaluation. The global industry average was 65. It was just ahead of last year’s winner, CaixaBank, on 85. Indeed, all of the Big Four banks from Australia were rated by the research company, with Commonwealth Bank and NAB both scoring well. ANZ, however, fell well below the global average, with a score of only 44. The benchmark assessed the retail mobile banking services of 46 large retail banks […]
