Bank Of Queensland backs solar panel lender Brighte
Brighte, a buy-now-pay-later platform for home energy backed by Atlassian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, has secured a $15 million debt facility with Bank Of Queensland that takes its total facilities to $45 million. Of the 11,000 payment plans worth $90 million approved by Brighte since it started lending in October 2016, 94 per cent have been for renewable home energy equipment such as solar panels and batteries. The facility with BOQ’s finance division adds to a facility with National Australia Bank, which has just been extended from $20 million to $30 million. It would allow Brighte to expand its interest-free lending into associated areas such as air conditioning […]
Ripple signs up three cross-border payment services
Three companies that provide cross-border payment services plan to use technology developed by startup Ripple that employs cryptocurrency XRP to speed transactions. Ripple, a large holder and promoter of XRP, said its platform for cross border payments, called xRapid, is now commercially available and that it had signed up firms Cuallix, MercuryFX and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union as clients. XRapid uses XRP, a virtual currency powered by distributed database technology called blockchain, to make international payments faster, according to Ripple. Mercury FX and Cuallix are money transfer companies, while Catalyst is a wholesale cooperative financial institution that provides a range of services to 1,400 credit unions throughout the United […]
Social Enterprises making the most of Equity Crowdfunding
Equity crowdfunding has been labelled the way of the future for social enterprise, with one community-owned renewable energy retailer raising over $300,000 to expand across Australia. Enova Community Energy’s equity crowdfunding campaign on Crowd88 has raised $348,649 two days before it’s due to wrap up on 4 October. While it has fallen short of its target of $600,000 to $3 million, Enova chair Alison Crook AO said this was not surprising, adding that the board would consider extending the campaign. “As with all campaigns it’s dependent on publicity and it’s taken us a while to ramp this up,” Crook told Pro Bono News. “So this is actually par for the […]
Recent political turmoil causing millennials to spend less
New research by Raiz Invest, the mobile-first micro-investing platform, shows the recent political climate has made millennials more financially risk averse, with almost half (44%) spending less than six months ago. An even greater proportion (48%) considering changes to their investment strategy. More than 1,000 young Australians were asked about changes in spending and savings habits, as well as trust in major institutions around personal finances – including superannuation, savings and investment funds – to uncover the impact of these major events on their behaviour. Australians are feeling disillusioned No surprise that nearly one in three (29%) mistrust their financial institutions with their superannuation, with a third (34%) remaining neutral. […]
BlackRock outlines ETF plans for Australia
Actively managed ETFs are one of the things that are off the table for BlackRock’s Australian business at least for now, according to the newly-appointed iShares head Christian Obrist. Obrist spoke to Financial Standard about the opportunities that BlackRock sees in advisers, institutionals and managed accounts. “We are not going to go down that track [of actively managed ETFs] at the moment because of the single market-maker model and we strongly advocate for a multiple market-maker model where your ETFs are put into a competition to trade,” Obrist says. “If you have a product that is in a single market-maker model and the market starts to tank, you have one […]
UBank announces partnership with MSA National to provide DigiDocs
UBank, Australia’s leading digital bank, has today announced a partnership with MSA National to provide its customers with a more efficient and convenient way of signing home loan documents. Known as DigiDocs, the service provides eligible customers a way to quickly and securely review and sign loan documents on their computer or mobile device quickly anywhere, at any time. Powered by MSA National and using the DocuSign platform, DigiDocs uses encryption and two-factor authentication to provide customers safe and secure processing. Anna Vincent, UBank’s Head of Customer Home Loans, said, “Getting a home loan is one of the most important decisions a person will make in their lives, and at […]
Banking royal commission interim report: Banks to tap each other’s account data
There’s a clear takeaway for the fintech scene from the banking royal commission’s interim report: the major banks will have to get much more sophisticated accessing and analysing spending data generated by customers. In the wake of Commissioner Kenneth Hayne’s blockbuster report, data policy inside the banks is no longer going to be viewed solely through the prism of customer experience but also of regulatory compliance. The ability to tap reliable data sources held outside the bank, and making sense of those numbers, will become a mission critical function for all banks. This means spending on data analytics technology is set to rise, and banks are likely to accelerate engagement […]
The crypto world is going wild for ‘stablecoins’ — here’s everything you need to know about them
The latest innovation in the fast-moving world of cryptocurrencies is the “stablecoin” – cryptocurrencies pegged to real-world assets such as the dollar or gold. A report from crypto wallet provider Blockchain released this week found that “the number of active stablecoin projects has dramatically increased over the past 12-18 months and more than a dozen project teams have stated they plan to launch in the coming weeks/months.” There are now over 50 in development globally. Here’s everything you need to know about the hottest new area of crypto: What is a stablecoin? “Stablecoins” are cryptocurrencies whose prices are linked to a real-world asset. In theory, they could be linked to […]
