The Perth women making your life better with technology
While most of the world is still coming to grips with just what blockchain is there are two West Australian women who have poured everything they have into taming the digital beast to tackle real world problems and improve everyday life. Blockchain is the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but across the globe entrepreneurs to huge multinationals are exploring its use in other areas like financial services, energy and education. In its simplest form a blockchain is a digital transaction record that isn’t stored on any one computer. This decentralisation means once a transaction is recorded it cannot be tampered with, making the technology attractive to banks and finance […]
ANZ CEO Shayne Elliott says technology will kill the banking oligopoly
Rapid technological disruption will break apart the Australian banking oligopoly and overturn the universal banking model that has underpinned big bank profits for decades, the chief executive of ANZ Banking Group told thousands of global bankers on Monday. In order to thrive in an uncertain future, banks will need to partner more with start-ups and global tech giants and potentially sell financial products manufactured by outsiders, Shayne Elliott said. The ANZ boss said dealing with the fallout of the Hayne royal commission simultaneously with unprecedented technological change was “challenging”, although he remained optimistic that ANZ could cope with both. The four-day Sibos event in Sydney this week is being attended […]
uno cracks the formula for 10-minute home loan recommendations
Online mortgage broker uno Home Loans has introduced technology that delivers refinancers a credit proposal for a cheaper home loan in the time it takes to drink a coffee. Watch the video here. The new refinancing pathway on uno’s platform digitises the process to combine a property valuation; ID verification; instant credit check; collection of current loan details; verification of income, expenses and liabilities; and assessment with credit policies from nine lenders. This expedited process – which would take days with a traditional broker – addresses a major barrier to more Australians refinancing and saving. uno Home Loans Founder and Chief Innovation Officer Vincent Turner said, “Many Australians know they […]
DriveWealth partners with Verrency to offer consumers access to a new savings and investing strategy
Digital brokerage solution provider DriveWealth has joined forces with Australian global payments innovator Verrency. The partnership will enable DriveWealth to deliver its ground-breaking fractional share investment platform to a new segment of consumers. As a result of the agreement between the two companies signed today at Money20/20 in Las Vegas, shoppers who have a debit or credit card will have the opportunity to seamlessly invest in companies from which they purchase goods and services. For example, if you buy shoes from the Nike store, you can elect to round up or put a percentage of the purchase price towards buying shares, or a fraction of a share, in the company. […]
Irish FinTech company PerfectCard confirms its sale to Australia’s EML for €6m
Irish FinTech company PerfectCard has been sold to Australian payment solutions provider EML Payments in a €6m (A$9.5m) deal. PerfectCard provides incentive and corporate expense solutions including PerfectIncentive and the recently-launched Pecan Expense. The acquisition will result in the expansion of PerfectCard in Ireland, with plans to increase the number of full-time employees over the next few years, the company said. Under the deal EML has acquired 75pc of PerfectCard, having received Central Bank approval for the transaction in the past two weeks. Commenting on the announcement, Nikki Evans, CEO of PerfectCard, described it as an important move for both companies. “It allows EML to self-issue regulated payment products across […]
Raiz partners with Swiss RE to develop tailored service offering
Raiz Invest Limited has reached an agreement with Swiss Re to work exclusively with Swiss Re to jointly research and develop tailored and personalised superannuation insurance products using machine learning algorithms. This will initially be for its Raiz Invest Super product. The research and development process will use predictive modelling technology, powered by machine learning developed by Swiss Re. This will include co-developing a predictive underwriting model which aims to deliver a simpler underwriting experience for customers. The aim is to develop a risk product inside superannuation that allows customers to have a personalised product, which is simple to apply for online. Predictive modelling will give Raiz Invest Super the […]
Westpac launches ‘designer’ wearable payments accessories
The bank has made payment-enabled keychains, silicon tags, and some pins available, but there’s still no sign of Apple Pay. Westpac has announced the availability of “Centsitive Objects” on Wednesday, touted by the bank as a range of “designer” wearable payment-enabled accessories. Instead of just plugging into devices manufactured by others, Westpac launched its own range of wearable, hands-free, and battery-free payment accessories in October. The new range designed by Sydney-based entrepreneur Hayden Cox builds on the bank’s PayWear wearable payments play. According to Cox, his designs are ideally shaped for customers that want a payments device with a “little more flavour”. “Our customers are increasingly on-the-go with more than […]
Neobank Revolut to launch in Australia, 20,000 on waiting list
“I never want Revolut to be referring to itself as a bank,” says its head of marketing, Chad West. “We are an alternative to a bank. We are completely different.” Revolut, headquartered in London, was only founded three years ago; it now has over 3 million customers in Europe, a number that has doubled over the past nine months. The neobank is attracting 7000 new customers each day, and expects this will be 10,000 by the end of this year. In April it secured $US250 million in fresh venture capital funding for global expansion, at a valuation of $US1.7 billion. It’s the fastest-growing unicorn tech company in Europe. And according […]
