Faster, cheaper: blockchain breeds competition
Blockchain technology has the potential to provide superior post-trade infrastructure to investors. Fund managers will soon be enjoying faster and cheaper transactions than what monopoly incumbents such as the ASX offer, thanks to competition, a tech company boss predicts. The post-trade world is “very, very expensive relative to the work that is performed”, says Peter Randall, president of technology company SETL. SETL has built institutional payment and settlements infrastructure based on blockchain technology, which could emerge as competition to a blockchain-based platform the ASX is now developing to replace its legacy Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) infrastructure. Randall will speak at Investment Magazine’s upcoming Investment Operations Conference, to be […]
Australia Post pilots Sniip bill-paying app to save customers time
Australia Post is pleased to be offering its customers a new choice for paying bills by piloting state-of-the-art mobile payments app, Sniip. General Manager Payments and Financial Services at Australia Post, Deanne Keetelaar, said Sniip’s mobile payment technology means customers can pay their bills from their smartphones within seconds. “Australia Post is very excited to be working with Sniip on this pilot project, which supports our commitment to continually improving the bill payment experience for customers,’’ Ms Keetelaar said. “We will initially be offering our customers the ability to pay bills from selected billers using Sniip and seeing how they respond. Sniip has proven through its current billing partners that […]
72% of Aussies now using digital payments
Latest numbers from Roy Morgan reveal 72.4% of Aussies are using at least one form of digital payment, with adoption tipped to rise as society edges towards a cash and cardless environment. Results stem from Roy Morgan’s Digital Payment Solutions Currency Report, citing face-to-face interviews with 50,000 consumers in the twelve months to November 2018. Norman Morris, Roy Morgan Industry Communications Director, asserts the change poses a threat to traditional payment methods – e.g. cash and credit cards – exacerbated by the growth of wearable technology such as smartwatches. “The increasing use of new payment technologies is being aided by the growing proliferation and development of smart phones and wearables […]
Why you should invest, not save, for your kids
While parents want to be able to provide the best for their kids, it’s hard to save for their little ones’ futures when interest rates are slumped at historic lows. Even with regular deposits, cash attracting just 0.5 or 1 per cent interest in a savings account might not amount to all that much. However, if you choose to invest for your kids, you could potentially net each child an extra $35,000 by the age of 21, according to Patrick Garrett, chief investment officer at robo-adviser Six Park. “There’s a growing awareness of the power of compounding interest but also a willingness to consider investment portfolios because most people who are […]
US firm triples its stake in Radium
Rocketing growth at a fledgling Perth fintech has prompted its US financial partner to buy a bigger slice of the firm under “a multimillion-dollar” deal. New York-based Brevet Capital has tripled its stake in Radium Capital to 50 per cent by buying stock from the WA group’s seven other shareholders led by company promoter Tony Brennan. Mr Brennan’s son David founded Radium with schoolmate David Weir nearly two years ago to give cash-poor companies quick access to the Federal Government’s research and development rebate. While others also operate in the same space, Radium believes it is differentiated from those rivals by its sole focus on the R&D rebate, proprietary technology […]
‘Grown ups’: Neobanking sector chases customer sign ups
Australia’s digital banking sector promises the sector is no longer in its infancy and this year the chase for customers is on. “I’m guessing that you’ll see four to five new neobanks start up over the next 24 months,” chief executive of Xinja, Eric Wilson, says. The banking startup kicked off 2019 by launching a new equity crowdfunding campaign, raising $500,000 in its first nine hours to build on its previous $2.7 million raise in January 2019. Revenues are currently in the tens of thousands, but the business is pitching long-term growth once its products are formally launched. The business has a restricted banking licence from the Australian Prudential Regulatory […]
Afterpay buy now pay later rival Zip favoured by investor Philip King of Regal
Shares in Afterpay Touch have doubled in the past 12 months as Millennials lap up its buy now, pay later solution to spending and now some investors are hoping its major rival, Westpac-backed payment provider Zip Co, can follow that lead. Regal Funds Management chief investment officer Philip King describes Zip as a “high-growth company that is in the sweet spot of moving from start-up losses to very high earnings growth”. Regal holds 6.4 per cent of Zip’s shares, which makes it the third largest shareholder after the company’s co-founder and chief executive Larry Diamond and Westpac. The renowned fund manager used to own Afterpay, but now prefers Zip on […]
A guide to Ripple wallets
Ripple (XRP) is a decentralized real-time gross settlement system (RTGS), remittance network, and currency exchange. It was created as a distributed open source protocol by Ripple Labs Inc., a US-based technology firm. Ripple (XRP) was initially derived from RipplePay, back in 2004, a platform that had plans to grow into the current Ripple services, long before Bitcoin had emerged. It was rebranded and co-founded by Jed McCaleb, a prominent industry figure who later founded Stellar Lumens, another equally popular remittance platform based on blockchain technology. Its platform supports tokens representing cryptocurrency, fiat currency, commodities and even other units of value such as frequent flier miles and mobile minutes. Although XRP […]
