FinTech

Apr
12

Buy now, pay later apps turn focus to business owners

'Buy now, pay later' platforms have changed life for shoppers and now small businesses will be courted with the same model. "What we're seeing now is businesses getting really crunched around payment terms...it's like there's a freeze or a jolt in the system," Cloudfloat founder Aleem Habibullah says. Cloudfloat is preparing to soft launch its fintech product at the end of the month. The startup will pay business invoices directly and then small businesses will pay it back in instalments over periods up to 90 days. As the push for shorter payment times intensifies, Habibullah says some companies are struggling to keep up. Just as models like Afterpay let eager […]
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Apr
12

Bravura circles competitor

The wealth management software firm has made a proposal to acquire another ASX-listed fintech that could value the latter at up to $170 million. Bravura Solutions submitted a non-binding indicative proposal to acquire all shares of GBST Holdings for a $2.50 per share in cash minus a special dividend of 0.35 per share subject to approval. GBST provides administration services to life insurers, stock brokers, wealth management businesses and institutions. Its clients include the big four banks, Baillieu Holst, Bell Porter and Morgans. The $1.1 billion Bravura is more than eight times GBST's market cap. Bravura's offer of $2.50 per share represents a 30% premium to GBST's 30-day volume-weighted average […]
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Apr
12

The Bitcoin Times – Officially Launched

The Bitcoin Times was created to cut through all the bulls#*% you may have read or heard about Bitcoin…(there’s lots of it). It’s not about “blockchain”, nor is it about “crypto”. It’s about what matters. It’s dedicated to Bitcoin, as a concept, as a monetary phenomenon & as a new form of global, digital collaboration that is fair and robust in nature. The Bitcoin times is a distillation of a broadly complex concept into something digestible, so that more people know what the real innovation in this space is. Only publishing 2 of these per year. It’s 100% free and created by the team at Amber to help spread the right narrative.
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Apr
12

From devolution to revolution: re-bundling the banks

Glenn Hodgeman, owner of the AltFi Australasia Summit, suggests that re-bundling and white labelling may be the future of lending in Australia. As Bill Gates once famously stated, “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten”. But given the current state of banking in a post-Hayne world, I personally suspect the next two years in financial services will be specifically characterised by rapid change. Traditional lenders are now facing more than just pressure from the growing wave of alternative and non-bank lenders: they are also now staring down the barrel of a regulator with […]
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Apr
12

Aussie fintech Volt Bank starts by asking consumers what they want

In January, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) gave fintech startup Volt Bank a licence to operate without restrictions as an authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI). The green light was given to the new player following APRA approval in May 2018 to act in the Australian finance market as a Restricted ADI. The APRA approval gave Volt the title as the first digital startup bank in Australia to receive a banking licence since the early 2000s. Funds up to AU$250,000 deposited into Volt are guaranteed by the Australian government as part of this arrangement. However, as Volt's senior digital marketing manager Kim Kooren told Salesforce World Tour in Sydney, the company […]
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Apr
12

Champion lender Jacaranda Finance sets a new pace for the fintech industry

Milton based lender Jacaranda Finance has been named the Champion of Financial Services at the Australian Small Business Champion Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony on Saturday the 6th of April. Held at Sydney’s The Star Casino, with over 1,100 guests in attendance, Jacaranda was publically recognised as a champion small business, and an up and coming financial services provider. With over 2,000 outstanding applicants all round, an award like this is no easy feat. ‘We definitely did not expect to win!’ says Daniel Wessels, CEO of Jacaranda Finance. “The competition was fierce and all of the applicants should be extremely proud to have been nominated,” he continued. ‘With over 4,000 […]
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Apr
12

Emily Wilcox: Practifi’s Australian COO disrupting the American fintech space

Rising through the ranks of the crowded and male-dominated world of finance and technology, financial services firm Practifi’s COO Emily Wilcox recently spoke with Eric Dye on EPN–the Enterprise Podcast Network—about her emerging role within the field, how fintech is developing and what the future holds for CRMs and women in the financial services sector. Speaking from her new-found home in Chicago, Emily started off by detailing her experience with Practifi, and what it was that led her to a career in the fintech space. Having been with Practifi for just over five years, Emily recalled how she was one of the very first employees in the team. Her journey […]
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Apr
12

HashChing outlines new funding plans

The COO of digital mortgage marketplace HashChing has revealed the company is repeating last year’s fundraising exercise after failing to achieve its $5m target. Last May, HashChing attempted to use equity crowdfunding space Equitise to raise $5m in a month and a half. Interested investors could back the fintech for as little as $250. However, according to COO and board advisor Siobhan Hayden, the funding round was not successful. “We believe it was a demographic issue,” she said, explaining that the younger crowds that inhabit online crowdfunding spaces are drawn to more glamorous investing opportunities than those in the mortgage industry. The funds were intended to be used for new […]
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