Fintech Zip has hit cash flow break-even, its shares slip
Australian fintech Zip — the owner of the zipPay, zipMoney and Pocketbook brands — has hit cash flow break even right on target. In a business update, digital retail finance and payments player says revenue for the fourth quarter was $13.2 million, up 136% on the same three months last year. And Zip hit positive underlying cash from operating activities, after bad debt write-offs, of $700,000. However, Zip’s share price fell up to 3% in early trade. At the close, the shares were down 1% to $1.00. ZipMoney operates a “buy now, pay later, no interest” service and uses artificial intelligence and big data technologies to drive a credit and […]
Afterpay surges 20pc after earnings increase
Shares in Afterpay Touch gained as much as 20 per cent after the company said underlying sales has increased by almost 40 per cent to $736 million over the quarter. The buy now, pay later payments provider said group revenue for the 2018 financial year would be around $142 million while earnings before interest, tax depreciation and amortisation was forecast to be around $33 million to $34 million. Afterpay, which allows millennial consumers to pay for goods in instalments by charging merchants, said that $2.18 billion of underlying sales had been processed through its payment platform during the 2018 financial year. That is almost a threefold increase from the prior […]
Mastercard tries to make paying with virtual coins easier
Mastercard has landed a US patent for a payment system that would make it easier for people to quickly and securely settle transactions with cryptocurrencies. First reported by Coindesk, Mastercard said its proposed method would mean the payee assumed less risk in a cryptocurrency transaction, which could result in a higher acceptance of virtual coins by merchants. “It often takes a significant amount of time, around ten minutes, for a blockchain-based transaction to be processed, due to the computer processing time and resources required to verify and update the blockchain,” Mastercard said. “Conversely, traditional fiat payment transactions that are processed using payment networks often have processing times that are measured […]
Square and BOQ team up to help more Australian small businesses get started
Global payments company Square, founded and run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has announced it is teaming up with Bank of Queensland (BOQ) for a first-of-a-kind partnership that will give more Australian small businesses a simple way to access great banking services and more flexible payment options. From today, new BOQ small business customers signing up for business banking services will also receive a free Square Reader for contactless and chip, and fee-free processing for their first $1,000 of sales. The partnership is designed as a ‘one-stop-shop’ solution enabling time-poor business owners to walk into any of BOQ’s 180 national branches, and walk out ready to start working instantly. “We’re […]
Accelerating the Accounts Payable process for BOC Australia
BOC Australia removing data entry for customers and accelerating their own invoice payments in partnership with Link4 Australia. Since November 2017, BOC Australia have partnered with Link4 Australia to deliver BOC’s invoices directly into their customer’s cloud accounting software. What initially started out as an eight week pilot period to improve their accounts payable process, turned into a much larger project. BOC saw enough pieces of success in this initial project, which led to them extending the trial to more users. Fast forward to today, where upon completion of this project, BOC have opened up e-Invoicing with Link4 to all of their customers on an opt-in basis. The initial project […]
Credit cards on the decline as Visa says we have passed ‘peak plastic’
Australia has reached “peak plastic” and credit card transactions will now start to decline, as people increasingly adopt mobile and wearable payment technologies, according to the new country manager of Visa. In his first interview since becoming the head of Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific at Visa in January, former local head of Citibank’s consumer banking operations Julian Potter told The Australian Financial Review the tipping point for change in consumer payments preferences would come when things like Myki or Opal cards could be stored on your phone in a digital wallet. “I use my phone and it just took a few goes and then the habit set […]
EML Payments acquires Irish fintech to corner EU market
EML Payments has acquired 74.9 per cent of Irish fintech Perfectcard DAC (Perfectcard) for AUD$9.5 million. Perfectcard is an authorised eMoney institution providing incentive and corporate expense solutions regulated by the Irish Central Bank. Australian listed payments solutions provider EML expects Perfectcard to generate earnings of $400,000-600,000 in FY19 after integration costs. The Irish regulator first needs to approve EML as a majority shareholder before the acquisition can go through, but EML expects the approval to be granted in the coming months. Notwithstanding the approval process, EML says it will consolidate Perfectcard into its financial results from 4 July 2018. EML says the acquisition of Perfectcard will allow the listed […]
Australian FinTech company PokitPal and Booking.com sign global agreement
Australian FinTech company PokitPal, and Booking.com, the world leader in booking accommodation online, have signed a global agreement which gives PokitPal consumers cash back when they complete a transaction with Booking.com to further engage with the millennial and mobile-first markets. The new global agreement means PokitPal users can receive five per cent cash back on more than 28 million accommodation listings as well as flights, car rentals and airport transfers in 228 countries. Users simply need to book via the PokitPal App to receive the cash back reward. PokitPal CEO Gary Cobain said offering cash back to a PokitPal user’s bank card simply by using their app is a new […]
