Netwealth releases open-source advice toolkit
Platform provider Netwealth has launched a new open-source toolkit for advice businesses that is focused purely on innovation. Part of the first release of Netwealth’s Innovation Toolkit is the Customer Journey Map workshop, focused on the customer experience and journey, putting employees in the shoes of clients through a series of team activities. Netwealth joint managing director Matt Heine said its Innovation Toolkit is about providing advice businesses access to a range of materials and tools so they can facilitate workshops in their own office. “This is a simple toolkit that provides businesses with a framework to identify friction points in the customer experience and develop implementable solutions to address […]
Non-majors drop interest rates
Online lender Tic:Toc and Teachers Mutual Bank have both announced changes to some of their home loan offerings. Tic:Toc has dropped its variable rate to 3.57 per cent (3.58 per cent comparison) for new customers (as of 28 September) and is offering its existing customers the same rate on a two-year fixed rate basis (down from 3.64 per cent previously). Speaking of the change, Tic:Toc’s founder and CEO, Anthony Baum, commented that part of the decision to drop rates had been brought about by the findings of the financial services royal commission. Mr Baum said: “It’s common practice among the major banks to lower interest rates for new customers while simultaneously hiking […]
SME lender expands equipment finance
An online lender has expanded its offering of equipment finance, saying it is providing a solution for the “underserved” market of small business owners. OnDeck Capital Australia said it had received feedback from small businesses and brokers about the length of the loans. The lender found that a lot of equipment had useful lives longer than the length of repayments. Small businesses can also find it difficult to get funding from mainstream lenders. Cameron Poolman, Chief Executive Officer of OnDeck Australia, said brokers often speak to OnDeck about the challenges they encounter obtaining traditional finance solutions for nonprimary assets. He said, “These include assets such as catering equipment, gym equipment, […]
BitTorrent’s creator wants to build a better Bitcoin
In 2001, a 25-year-old unemployed college dropout named Bram Cohen crafted an elegant protocol for moving data around the internet. Titanic numbers of pirated songs and movies, and countless lawsuits, later, he’s putting the finishing touches on what he hopes will be another world-changing protocol—this time for moving around money. Cohen’s earlier invention was BitTorrent, a specification for peer-to-peer file sharing that delighted millions but angered entertainment moguls, and at one point consumed more than a third of global internet traffic. His latest creation is a digital currency and startup called Chia, aimed at making cryptocurrency acceptable to the financial industry. “I like hard technical problems,” says Cohen, with a […]
Accenture launches Innovation Centre for Risk and Compliance in Australia
Accenture has launched a new Innovation Centre for Risk and Compliance in Sydney to help financial services clients quickly develop and scale advanced data, analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. With financial services organisations facing an increasingly complex and challenging operating environment, the new innovation centre will help these institutions cost effectively improve the quality and consistency of compliance and enhance transparency with customers and regulators. Offering an alternative to the traditional manual and labour-intensive approaches to regulatory compliance, the innovation centre will help clients better target problem areas and accelerate remediation efforts using a new generation of data management, intelligent automation and advanced analytics capabilities, powered by big data, cloud […]
New SMSF admin offering hits market from fintech firm
A fintech firm has developed a new platform which provides SMSF establishment and ongoing administration services. The financial technology platform, called Selfmade, was developed by former Macquarie investment banker Robin Huender and MoneyMe Financial Group chief executive Clayton Howes. Selfmade is an online platform allowing users to establish and monitor the performance of their SMSF while admin and tax returns are taken care of in the background. “Selfmade has built its platform with integrations to Class and Macquarie. The platform targets SMSF trustees and members that might otherwise be handled by less tech-enabled accountants and administrators,” said the fintech firm. To read more, please click on the link below… […]
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 […]
