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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Bitcoin Price: Is blockchain cryptocurrency still the future?
It’s highly volatile, can be extremely risky, and is something most have heard of but don’t know much about. And after a horror 12 months which saw Bitcoin plunge by more than 60 percent most investors who were bold enough to invest are now wondering if they will ever reap any reward from their investments. While nothing in economics is certain, those who trade and invest are fairly confident it will happen but not straight away. According to Fred Schebesta, Co-Founder of Finder-backed cryptocurrency financial services company HiveEx.com, crypto is basically digital gold and like the real thing, is more of a long-term investment. Mr Schebesta admits the high risk […]
Xero backs itself with $413m convertible notes
Cloud-based accounting company Xero has backed itself to continue growing strongly, raising $US300 million ($413 million) in five-year convertible notes with an exercise price 70 per cent above its share price on Thursday. Capital raising via the issue of convertible notes is relatively commonplace among US technology companies – NASDAQ-listed Atlassian raised $US850 million this way in April – however Xero chief executive Steve Vamos said it was “groundbreaking” for an Australasian company. “If we think we’ve got strong growth potential in the future, we don’t want to issue stock at current prices and dilute our shareholders,” Xero chief financial officer Sankar Narayan said. “We were well placed to raise in […]
