Adelaide fintech startup Joust seeking to raise $2m in Equity Crowd Funding
Adelaide fintech startup Joust is launching an equity crowdfunding campaign via OnMarket and is hoping to raise $2 million to rapidly scale the business. The Joust platform, launched in 2016, links borrowers with more than 20 lenders who compete against each other to offer the lowest interest rate via a reverse auction process. Using equity crowdfunding platform OnMarket, the company plans to spend a large portion of the money raised on advertising, with the remaining funds to go towards product development, potential entry into overseas markets and building out the Joust team. A minimum $700,000 is being sought as part of the capital raise, which allows retail investors to invest between $500 […]
Fintech business lenders sign code to lift transparency
Six fintech start-ups that lend to small business have signed a ”code of lending practice”, a move the small business ombudsman says will improve transparency and protect SMEs by requiring the online lenders to disclose standardised pricing and fairly resolve disputes. Prospa, which pulled an ASX float this month on concerns about its transparency, is a signatory to the code, along with Spotcap, Capify, GetCapital, Moula, OnDeck. They will be compliant by the end of the calendar year. The code will be enforced by an independent committee to be set up by the Australian Finance Industry Association. AFIA has helped write the code, alongside the Australian Small Business and Family […]
Fintechs tell Labor a credit report delay will entrench bank power
Labor’s push to delay a law requiring the major banks to put more customer data into credit reports will entrench the big four’s market dominance and keep the cost of personal loans unnecessarily high, five of the nation’s leading marketplace lenders have said. In a letter to shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, the CEOs of SocietyOne, RateSetter, MoneyPlace, Harmoney and WISR said a further delay to mandating big bank participation in the ‘comprehensive credit reporting’ (CCR) regime will “continue to entrench a fundamental competitive imbalance between the big four and other lenders”. The letter is a response to Mr Bowen’s move last week to call for a delay to CCR by […]
Put your money where your trust is
Why Nifty Personal Loans is the lender for you. In light of the recent fine laid down to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia for breaching anti-money laundering and counter terrorism laws, the credibility of Australian lenders has once again come under scrutiny. The massive $700 million settlement, the largest ever civil penalty in Australian corporate history, was agreed upon by CBA and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) earlier last week. It is said that CBA’s breach of anti-money laundering laws allowed large crime syndicates to launder funds through the bank’s ATM’s and Intelligent Deposit Machines (IDM’s). The bank and trusted lender failed to carry out appropriate assessment […]
Westpac ends Prospa deal as banks plan more unsecured SME lending
Westpac Banking Corp has ended its referral relationship with Prospa, a sign major banks are preparing to ramp up unsecured small business lending to try to regain some of the market that has been surrendered to start-ups. After Prospa indefinitely postponed its ASX listing last week amid questions on whether its loan contracts breached new laws, the online business lender faces more intense competition from big banks who are developing new products to lend more to small business without requiring residential property to be pledged as security. “We did not continue our contract with Prospa because we are working on developing our own products that will satisfy more of our […]
Credit report delay shows fintech social risk concerns
Nothing is more valuable to a fintech start-up than data. And some of the best quality data for pricing financial services are the historical records of customer debt repayments. When run through algorithms, these can indicate how likely a prospective borrower is to repay a loan in the future, which helps with assessing risk and pricing. Fintechs are right on the cusp of getting access to this “repayment history information” (RHI), through the government’s new “comprehensive credit reporting” (CCR) regime. The policy is due to come into force in just over a fortnight, and would require banks to attach RHI to customer reports provided to credit bureaus. So the last-minute […]
Ombudsman calls for greater clarity on fintech loan terms
Speaking to Mortgage Business, the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBFEO), Kate Carnell, stated her concern that fintechs, including Prospa, are making their interest rates “really hard to understand”. The small business lender, which postponed its public listing this week, reportedly has an average annual interest rate north of 40 per cent. However, while Ms Carnell did not suggest the interest rate was inappropriate, she did question the transparency around the actual rate itself. “If somebody wants to pay a 40 per cent [annual percentage rate], that’s absolutely fine,” Ms Carnell told Mortgage Business. “For particular sorts of loans that could have high levels of risk, that’s an […]
Prospa founders admit float lost ‘vital momentum’
The co-founders of small business lender Prospa maintain the company can return to the public markets for a future float, after a last-minute regulatory query this week created “confusion” that sapped the listing of vital “momentum.” Prospa was meant to be one of most-watched floats of 2018, but these plans were thrown into disarray this week as scrutiny from regulators apparently caught the company, and its investment bankers, off-guard. After Thursday night’s decision to postpone the float, on Friday, co-founders Greg Moshal and Beau Bortoli said Prospa was taking the opportunity to “regroup” and one day return to the public markets. Prospa had been due to list around lunchtime on […]
