Cyber security has become an economic imperative
Cyber security is an economic imperative. It is key to the protection of organisations of all sizes, to the personal data of our people, and to ongoing jobs growth and wealth creation. After all, a robust and thriving digital economy is built on trust. The Australian financial services industry, perhaps more than any other, has the most to gain from a strong and innovative national cyber security eco-system. The sector has a more mature understanding of cyber risk than other industries, and with a major shift towards digital and mobile engagement with customers, now more than ever it has the motivation to invest and develop capability in this area. In […]
Fintech Market Growth to Add A$1 Billion New Value to Australian Economy by 2020
The global Fintech sector exhibited robust growth in 2014 when investment activity tripled to US$12.21 billion from US$4.05 billion in 2013. This activity continued in 2015 with an increase in global funding into Venture Capital (VC) backed Fintech startups. Fintech growth in 2015 was international, and Frost & Sullivan anticipates this international dispersion, as well as the global growth trend to continue with more Fintech companies successfully reaching the exit stage of funding in 2016. In the Asia-Pacific region, Fintech investments were concentrated in Australia, China and Singapore, and in 2015, skyrocketed to reach US$3.46b – a four-fold increase from 2014 to 2015. Asian Fintechs garnered strong support, with funding […]
UK fund to back ThinCats Australia
ThinCats Australia has announced that UK-based alternative finance fund ESF Capital will acquire a 30 per cent stake in the peer-to-peer (P2P) business lending platform. ESF Capital will also provide $10 million in funding for loans on the platform in the first year, joining another 300 lenders on ThinCats’ panel. ThinCats Australia CEO Sunil Aranha said the injection of capital and funding by ESF will provide a significant boost to the platform as well as the many SMEs seeking loans. “The injection of capital by ESF will allow us to ramp up our operations and technology platform, lift our market presence and hire more staff to tap into the largely […]
Peer-to-peer SocietyOne completes $25m raising
Peer-to-peer lender SocietyOne has completed a $25 million round of funding, which was supported by its leading shareholders. SocietyOne, now led by former senior Westpac executive Jason Yetton, announced yesterday that its loan book had shot through the symbolically important $100m barrier in the first week of April. This came after strong growth from the beginning of the year, with personal loans and agribusiness finance jumping by $30m. While the funding round has been under way for several months, its completion is a show of faith in SocietyOne’s direction under Yetton, who was appointed early last month, and the lender’s growth trajectory. The company took six quarters until the second […]
QuietGrowth adds multi-risk portfolio feature
Investors using robo-adviser QuietGrowth’s online platform will now be able to allocate portions of their savings towards different objectives, thanks to a new feature. QuietGrowth chief executive Dilip Sankarreddy said investors and advisers have access to a goals-based investment portfolio, allowing them to tailor the portfolio to their specific needs. “[Investors can now] allocate their savings towards different goals or objectives, with different risk-return expectations,” he said. “Saving for retirement, your child’s education, a house or a holiday are all very different objectives. It makes sense, therefore, that investors should be able to choose portfolios for different levels of risk,” said Mr Sankarreddy. According to the robo-advice firm, investors can […]
Banks and fintechs at war over password sharing
Micro investment company Acorns has accused ANZ Banking Group and other banks of telling customers they can’t share account passwords with the start-up, retarding its growth. Fintech Australia, the new lobby group for financial services start-ups, has formed an “open data subcommittee” to push for changes to the ePayments Code to make it clear that bank customers can give passwords to fintechs without banks having to provide approval. Sharing passwords with fintechs is a legal grey area. Acorns, which invests small change in exchange traded funds, lets users see their bank account activity and round up transactions to the nearest dollar. The app then invests the “change” in an investment […]
Founding Partner of SecondMarket joins PrimaryMarkets
PrimaryMarkets today announces that Philip H. Reicherz, former Partner and Managing Director of SecondMarket (USA), has joined its Advisory Panel.
Ignition Wealth launches “Teams” automated advice technology for Financial Businesses
Ignition Wealth today announced the launch of their new technology solution ‘Teams’, designed to support professional financial businesses as they adopt automated financial advice. Ignition Wealth will lead the presentations at the Melbourne Afiniation Fintech Showcase with the launch of their new Teams product. The Melbourne Afiniation Fintech Showcase will take place on April 14 at the Grand Hyatt Melbourne. CTO Mike Giles will demonstrate the new Ignition Wealth Teams technology to a crowd of over 200 fintech professionals and investors. “The wealth industry has traditionally been heavily paper based and the first opportunity is to bring those processes, including buying and selling of stocks and reporting, into an online […]
