SocietyOne hits new lending records
SocietyOne sets new lending record as growth continues to accelerate in 2017 $250 million in total lending originations since inception March 2017 sets new monthly record for new lending of $20 million Second best quarter on record for personal loans and agri-lending Loan book goes through $150 million – 165% increase year-on-year Significant increase in investor funding following appointment of CIO John Cummins SocietyOne, Australia’s leading and fastest-growing marketplace lender, has set a further new record for marketplace lending after passing through the $250 million lending mark following another strong quarter of growth. Strong demand from borrowers for personal loans in the post-Christmas and New Year period, and growing interest […]
Bitcoin spikes after Japan says it’s a legal payment method
Bitcoin trades up 2.8% at $1,133 a coin as of 7:08 a.m. ET on Monday. The cryptocurrency’s gains come after Japan announced on Friday that bitcoin would be accepted as a legal payment method beginning on April 1, 2017. It’s the first bit of good news for bitcoin in quite some time. Recent chatter in the market has centered around developers threatening a “hard fork” that would split the currency in two. Additionally, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two bitcoin ETFs in March, saying that it did not find the proposals “to be consistent with Section 6(b)(5) of the Exchange Act, which requires, among other things, that the […]
The ‘booming’ NSW economy that 100,000 people have joined
Growing use of services such Uber and Airbnb has led to a billion-dollar increase in the size of the so-called sharing or collaborative economy in NSW over the past year, a new study has found. The sale of goods and services via peer-to-peer technologies generated $2.6 billion in revenue for the NSW economy last year, recording growth of nearly 70 per cent, according to the research from Deloitte Access Economics commissioned by the finance department. The number of people in NSW earning an income from businesses that are part of what the state government calls the collaborative economy has nearly doubled over the past 12 months to reach 92,400, the […]
A view to the future of investment operations
Blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics, automated data entry and data mining are some of the big technological trends set to radically disrupt the way the back-office teams of superannuation funds and their service providers do their jobs in the not-too-distant future. The onslaught of change confronting investment operations teams is not limited to technology, though. The shift in assets to the deaccumulation phase, mergers, growth in funds under management and unrelenting regulatory changes are forcing industry players to make serious decisions about what to prioritise. Investment operations refers to all the cogs of the financial services machinery, and covers areas such as the implementation of investment transactions, performance reporting, analytics, fund […]
Stake lifts the bar for trading US stocks and ETFs
It was during a three-year stint in Chicago, working for market maker Optiver, that Matt Leibowitz realised Australians were getting gouged buying international equities through the brokerages owned by the big banks and the customer experience was woeful. “During my years in the US I was amazed at the breadth of product offered to US investors at a compelling price,” said Mr Leibowitz, who was a lawyer at Allens before joining Optiver in 2007. “I was shocked at the breadth and costs in Australia: we paid more and got less.” Returning to Australia four years ago, Mr Leibowitz started to sense an opportunity to start a fintech that would provide […]
Indian fintech revolution in motion, calling Australian fintechs to join us at Australia-India TatXpo 2017
Indian fintech revolution in motion, calling Australian fintechs, corporates and investors to participate. Taking interest for Australia-India TatXpo 28-30 June 2017 in Mumbai, India. What is TatXpo? TatXpo is the flagship annual Australia-India trade and investment expo established by Tat Capital. The focus will be on uncovering fintech opportunities and will be held in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. Last year’s format was day 1 expo and gala festivities, day 2 industrial site visits and day 3 cultural tour which we intend to repeat. Last year 93 delegates attended TatXpo2016 in Hyderabad (tech city) which included 22 ANZ CEOs, 55 companies and 25 VC/PE investors from 8 countries. They […]
Crowdfunding law a boon for fintech sector
Incoming legislative changes to equity crowdfunding will help further “democratise investing” by allowing retail investors to participate in funding rounds for local fintech start-ups, according to Equitise. The Corporations Amendment (Crowd-Sourced Funding) Bill 2016 was passed in the Senate last week in a move that will open up early-stage capital markets for retail investors, as well as helping Australia’s regulatory environment become more internationally competitive. The bill when enacted means fintech start-ups can raise funds by issuing securities to a large pool of investors in return for financial contributions through an online platform. Speaking to financialobserver, Equitise co-founder Jonny Wilkinson said the announcement was “quite game-changing” because traditional retail investors […]
BT Panorama partners with fintech
BT Financial Group has gone live with its retail superannuation administration functionality by partnering with international fintech company, Avaloq. The functionality was launched within BT Panorama. BTFG said it had previously relied on multiple legacy systems to undertake administration functions but this new functionality would allow them to migrate to a more cost effective, single platform. The ability to meet complex tax, regulatory, and compliance requirements associated with administration in the personal super segment formed part of BTFG’s ongoing Panorama project, which has now acquired 3,442 self-managed superannuation funds and 3,035 registered advisers since its initial cash hub launch in 2014. Avaloq Asia Pacific general manager, Peter Scott, said the […]