Square’s Jack Dorsey muscles in where banks have failed to serve
Billionaire Square co-founder Jack Dorsey says big banks have allowed his payments disrupter to muscle in on their territory by breaking the trust of customers and serving small business borrowers poorly, or not at all. Mr Dorsey, who also co-founded social media platform Twitter, said a long history of corruption had tarnished the reputation of the financial services sector, but with Square he hoped to restore trust in the industry. “The banking industry was invented in the 1600s in Florence and there has been corruption ever since,” Mr Dorsey said while in Melbourne for the second anniversary of Square’s local launch. “It’s not something that’s new to a particular country, […]
Square boosts Australian business with new HQ and engineering hub
Square today announced it is expanding operations in Australia, opening a new, larger headquarters to support the growing team in Melbourne, which will include the company’s first engineering hub outside of North America. Square co-founder and CEO, Jack Dorsey, was in the new Melbourne CBD location today to make the announcement and celebrate the company’s two-year milestone of providing payments to Australian businesses. “We have been humbled by the support Square has received from Australia’s business community over the past two years,” said Jack. “Australia is an important market for Square, with more and more businesses joining our platform every day.” In addition to increasing engineering capabilities, Square has received […]
OnMarket forges partnership with Listcorp
IPO and equity crowdfunding portal OnMarket have teamed together with investor relations platform Listcorp to assist newly listed ASX companies with the ongoing challenge of communicating and promoting themselves to investors. OnMarket CEO Ben Bucknell said “OnMarket has now helped over 70 companies list on the ASX. We are pleased to announce that we’ve recently entered into an agreement with Listcorp to help these companies better communicate with investors throughout Australia. “The fundamental benefit that both Listcorp and OnMarket are providing to Australia’s retail investors is access. OnMarket provides retail investors direct access to IPO and equity crowdfunding opportunities, and Listcorp provides retail investors access to much needed information about […]
Think you’ve innovated? Enter the finder Awards 2018 to show ‘em what you’ve got
We’ve seen our fair share of fintech innovations over the past few years. From robo-advice to peer-to-peer (P2P) lending to Blockchain, innovation has been offered in spades within the Australian marketplace. The finder Awards 2018 celebrates excellence in local business innovation by recognising creativity and impact across key industries including banking, property, retail, travel and of course, fintech. Comparison site, finder.com.au, invites the nation’s most forward-thinking businesses, both big and small, to step forward and showcase their best innovation. From Best Tech Innovation to Best Personal Finance App, there are seven innovation categories now open for submission. These include; Best Tech Innovation Best Online Shopping Innovation Most Innovative Team/Person Best […]
MYOB predicts a future without cash to end Black Economy
MYOB, a leading provider of business management solutions in Australia, has praised the Black Economy Taskforce in their findings to combat the black economy. “MYOB welcomes the recommendations outlined in the Government’s Black Economy Taskforce report. It’s great to see these recommendations leverage some of the good Government policy work already in place. One of the ways to tackle the black economy is to further promote a cashless economy, something we know Australian businesses on the whole are eager to embrace,” said MYOB CEO Tim Reed. Federal Budget supports Black Economy Taskforce findings by ending large cash payments The Black Economy Taskforce released the findings from its recent report in […]
Bank limitations create opportunities for non-bank lenders
Winners and losers from new bank regulations Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of an economy, but given the changes to bank regulations the sector is increasingly a ‘loser’. In Australia, SMEs employ around 70% of the workforce and produce around 55% of business economic activity. However, two key changes continue to push SMEs out of the bank lending market: 1. Cost – under Basel III, banks must hold higher levels of capital against SME lending, including low-risk loans backed by residential or commercial property. This makes lending to SMEs more ‘expensive’ for the banks, and hence they pass the cost onto the SME borrowers. 2. Time […]
Artificial intelligence to become commonplace at instos
About 60% of Northern Trust’s Australian-based institutional investment clients believe meaningful adoption of artificial intelligence will occur within the respective businesses over the next two years. Local instos are more bullish on AI than Singapore and Hong Kong-based clients, the global custodian notes, saying the Asia Pacific counterparts anticipate adoption happening in two to five years. Half of Australian clients surveyed also noted high-level stakeholder engagement and counter-party co-operation as vital to financial services’ adoption of blockchain. The findings come from surveys conducted at Northern Trust client events in the first quarter of 2018. Northern Trust head of market advocacy and innovation research, Asia Pacific, Danielle Henderson said as the […]
Prospa float reveals a new world of online business financing
Online small business lender Prospa is set to hit the ASX on June 6 with a market capitalisation of $576 million. It’s a lofty valuation for a relatively new business lender with a net loan book of $200 million and a statutory net profit in the 2017 financial year of just $1.2 million. But the number – settled after an institutional book build for Prospa shares last Thursday – points to the aggressive growth aspirations for the Sydney-based group, which is raising $146 million in an initial public offering fully-underwritten by Macquarie Capital and UBS. In its prospectus filed with the corporate regulator on Monday morning, Prospa said it expects to originate […]
