Eftpos gets Square as battle for mobile payments escalates
Mobile tradies and small businesses seeking to bypass steep credit card fees extracted by bank-owned payments terminals have scored a significant victory, with challenger payments provider Square revealing it has now ported eftpos functionality to its Australian machines. Made official on Monday, the tie-up between Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s global payments play Australia’s 30-something electronic payments scheme opens the door for millions of people holding everyday bank payment cards fitted with contactless functionality to avoid the dreaded Amex. While it might seem like an incremental retrofit, the realpolitik of the eftpos-Squarer hook-up is actually way bigger. It means an untapped army of smaller merchants – think dog washers, craft brewers, […]
Technology helping SMSF trustees to deal with uncertainty
An array of emerging tools is available to help SMSF trustees better manage their assets, crucial in times of stockmarket volatility. These new, largely digital technologies are giving trustees and members quality information about how to optimise the performance of their funds. Increasingly, self-directed SMSFs are able to access more asset classes via a joint online broker and online admin solution. For trustees this means increased simplicity – one sign-up process and one account holding all the fund’s investments, feeding data directly to all necessary parties. “For an SMSF, time is your most valuable asset – so don’t waste it on admin, paperwork or reporting,” says Arnie Selvarajah, CEO of […]
Pelikin: Is this Aussie fintech about to shake up millennial travel?
It’s no secret that young Australians love to travel. Ask any millennial and they’ll likely be hard pressed to name a friend that hasn’t recently travelled overseas or isn’t planning to do so in the near future. In fact, according to research from Roy Morgan released in May, millennials are the most likely cohort in Australia to have travel plans in the near future – 73.6% of those surveyed indicating that they intended to travel in the next 12 months. And with so many young Aussies heading overseas, one local fintech is not only banking on the travel bug sticking around, they’re hoping to completely change the way Australian travellers […]
Coinjar founder tips ‘stablecoin’ as the next big thing in cryptocurrency
Asher Tan, one of the wunderkind founders of Melbourne-based bitcoin exchange CoinJar, is looking out the window of a relaxed, almost hipster, shared-workspace for tech start-ups in London. It’s in a somewhat unlikely location: the 39th floor of the tallest office tower in the strait-laced banking district, Canary Wharf. The view of London’s metropolitan sprawl is amazing. But since arriving in Britain eight months ago, Tan’s eye has mostly been focused on peering over a different horizon – trying to pick out what’s coming next in the volatile, unpredictable landscape of cryptocurrency. Leaving his co-founder Ryan Zhou in charge of the day-to-day running of CoinJar and its 400,000 customers, he […]
Mastercard shifts tech hub to Sydney
Payment cards giant Mastercard has moved to shift a significant portion of its research and development work to Sydney, announcing today it will combine a new ‘global tech hub’ with its corporate and operations offices in St Leonards. The launch of the new facility, which will house more than 550 Mastercard employees, comes as card schemes try to keep up with local bank investments in various fintech ventures that are increasingly being run out of state government supported start-up hubs like Stone and Chalk. Mastercard certainly isn’t sparing the optics, roping in NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet to cut the ribbon on the facility as the government seeks to push its […]
DIY super funds getting into Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies
More do-it-yourself super funds are investing in cryptocurrencies as interest in investing in digital currencies rises among investors generally. While no hard data will be available until later next year when the Tax Office releases figures for the first time on how much cryptocurrency is held by funds, industry players say there are more self-managed super funds (SMSFs) investing. Fred Schebesta, a co-founder of comparison site Finder as well as digital currency exchange HiveEx, notes a marked increase in enquiries from SMSFs looking to buy cryptocurrency. And Adrian Przelozny, the chief executive of Sydney-based digital currency exchange Independent Reserve, has about 6000 self-managed super funds on the platform, with half […]
How the open banking API could transform financial services to benefit consumers
Until recently, the idea of waiting a day or two for a bank transfer to reach your account was normal, however consumers are starting to demand immediate and seamless payment alternatives. With upcoming developments in the Australian financial services sector, we should start to see these demands met – if not by banks, then by FinTech firms aiming to transform the financial services industry. Twelve months after the government announced the introduction of a Consumer Data Right (CDR) in Australia, Data61 has released a working draft of the standards that will underpin it. The CDR will offer Australians control over the data held about them by service providers, and the […]
Equity Crowdfunding: A Fintech Story
by Steve Kourabas* Digital Revolution The period following the global financial crisis of 2008 has brought with it massive changes to the digital economy. Almost every human interaction, and almost every organisation, has been impacted by the technology boom, which has brought with it new opportunities for innovation and dynamism. Developments in the area of finance have been particularly pronounced, with Fintech (a contraction of “finance” and “technology”) offering the opportunity to an increasing number of consumers around the world at all income levels to participate in financial markets.[1] Equity Crowdfunding (ECF) is one such advancement in the Fintech space that offers the opportunity for small and medium enterprises […]
