Australian Fintech company Verrency strengthens its presence in Asia
Global payments innovator Verrency has added heavyweight payments executive Jeff Portelli to its global Advisory Board. Based in Singapore, Portelli is the Global Head of Banking Operations at eNett, a leading provider of global business-to-business payment solutions for the travel industry. Portelli has more than two decades of international experience in the payments industry, working directly with banks, retailers and government partners across Australasia, Asia Pacific and the Middle East & Africa. In his current role, Portelli is responsible for overseeing eNett’s global issuing and banking strategy and infrastructure. This includes maintaining an effective control environment to monitor all of eNett’s issuing and banking activities, and ensuring the company meets […]
CBA, Data61 claim success on NDIS payments blockchain trial
The use of highly targeted and controlled smart payments across Australia’s health and welfare sector has inched a step closer. Data61 and the Commonwealth Bank claim to have successfully trialled an app that could make blockchain-based programmable money a reality for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) payments. The pair partnered last month to bring the prototype app to NDIS participants and service providers as a test case for the potential use of ‘smart money’ using blockchain technology. ‘Smart money’ allows for conditions to be attached to payments, making the NDIS’ use of highly personalised participant payment plans ripe for the first case study of the proof of concept. The prototype app […]
Eftpos gets Square as battle for mobile payments escalates
Mobile tradies and small businesses seeking to bypass steep credit card fees extracted by bank-owned payments terminals have scored a significant victory, with challenger payments provider Square revealing it has now ported eftpos functionality to its Australian machines. Made official on Monday, the tie-up between Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s global payments play Australia’s 30-something electronic payments scheme opens the door for millions of people holding everyday bank payment cards fitted with contactless functionality to avoid the dreaded Amex. While it might seem like an incremental retrofit, the realpolitik of the eftpos-Squarer hook-up is actually way bigger. It means an untapped army of smaller merchants – think dog washers, craft brewers, […]
Pelikin: Is this Aussie fintech about to shake up millennial travel?
It’s no secret that young Australians love to travel. Ask any millennial and they’ll likely be hard pressed to name a friend that hasn’t recently travelled overseas or isn’t planning to do so in the near future. In fact, according to research from Roy Morgan released in May, millennials are the most likely cohort in Australia to have travel plans in the near future – 73.6% of those surveyed indicating that they intended to travel in the next 12 months. And with so many young Aussies heading overseas, one local fintech is not only banking on the travel bug sticking around, they’re hoping to completely change the way Australian travellers […]
Mastercard shifts tech hub to Sydney
Payment cards giant Mastercard has moved to shift a significant portion of its research and development work to Sydney, announcing today it will combine a new ‘global tech hub’ with its corporate and operations offices in St Leonards. The launch of the new facility, which will house more than 550 Mastercard employees, comes as card schemes try to keep up with local bank investments in various fintech ventures that are increasingly being run out of state government supported start-up hubs like Stone and Chalk. Mastercard certainly isn’t sparing the optics, roping in NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet to cut the ribbon on the facility as the government seeks to push its […]
Service NSW introduces PayPal option
PayPal is now accepted as a payment option by Service NSW and will progressively roll out across all NSW Government agencies that use this website and app. The initial rollout will commence with Roads and Maritime Services. This partnership is the first wide-scale offering of PayPal for government payments in Australia and responds to the increasing customer demand for mobile digital services, giving NSW citizens more choice and flexibility in how they pay for government services. With 7.2 million customers in Australia, more than one-in-three NSW adults is a PayPal user. Service NSW provides customers with access to more than 1000 government transactions from around 40 different agencies. With PayPal, […]
Wirecard brings its platform services around digital financial technology to Australia and New Zealand
Wirecard, the global innovation leader for digital financial technology, today announced its platform expansion in Australia and New Zealand. The Wirecard platform is now available in New Zealand for e-commerce services and Australia for omnichannel solutions. With this expansion, Wirecard is extending its ecosystem of real-time value added services around innovative digital payments in Oceania. This leverages on the global Wirecard strategy of digitizing payments worldwide as Australia is leading innovation in areas such as contactless payments, bill payments, digital commerce, and point-of-sale applications, and the market is ready to make the next transformation. Research and Markets found out that the Australian payment mix is shifting heavily toward electronic payments. […]
Bitcoin: Ten Years On
A mysterious, anonymous entity known as “Satoshi Nakamoto” posted a white paper on October 31 2008 entitled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. It was the first time that the concept of Bitcoin entered the world. But outside of the cypherpunk mailing lists – those promoting the use of privacy-enhancing technology – this event was hardly noticed. Ten years on, who hasn’t at least heard of the cryptocurrency? On just nine pages, the white paper explained how the Bitcoin system would work. Many attempts at electronic cash had already been made going right back to computer scientist David Chaum’s “Digicash” developed in the 1980s. Using an intricate dance of cryptography, […]
