Australian fintechs well placed as incumbents hook up with one-time raiders
On any given day, the collaboration model increasingly embraced by incumbent institutions and fintech companies means that a major bank will be working with 10-20 fintechs to remove clunky processes that are poison to customers. The narrative five years ago was that banks would crumble in the face of marauding fintech invaders, but trust (yes, it’s still there) and stability have proved to be confoundingly difficult adversaries. Business, though, is nothing if not pragmatic, so it’s no surprise that the battlelines in financial services have been redrawn by the ominous appearance of Google, Apple and Amazon on the horizon. The hope is that incumbency, spiced with a bit of fintech […]
World’s central banks can’t ignore the Bitcoin boom, BIS says
The world’s central banks can’t sit back and ignore the growth in cryptocurrencies as it could pose a risk to the stability of the financial system, according to the Bank for International Settlements. It said central banks will need to figure out whether to issue a digital currency and what its attributes should be, though the decision is most pressing in countries like Sweden where cash use is dwindling. Institutions need to take into account of not only privacy issues and efficiency gains in payment systems, but also economic, financial and monetary policy repercussions, the BIS said in its Quarterly Review. The analysis comes at the end of a rough […]
You can now pay for your Jetstar flights with Afterpay
Afterpay for flights just took off. Afterpay has announced a partnership with budget airline Jetstar, allowing customers to purchase their flights now and pay for them in four interest-free instalments later. For those of you not yet in the know, Afterpay works in a similar way to lay-by, only you get to take home your purchases before you finish paying for them. It has partnered with hundreds of online retailers so far, but this Jetstar venture marks its inaugural entrance into the travel industry. Available from today, as part of its pilot programme Afterpay can only be used on domestic flights, though there are plans to roll it out on […]
Two Australian fintechs selected to help develop payments solutions for the world
Two Australian fintech companies have beaten entrants from across the world to be selected among five finalists in a global payments industry challenge, where they will work to develop new cross-border solutions for thousands of banks. Assembly Payments and CurrencyVue have been selected to take part in the SWIFT gpi Industry Challenge in Singapore on 13-14 September. As part of this challenge, the two well-established financial technology companies will work with 30 banks to develop new services for SWIFT’s more than 11,000 financial institution members across 200 countries, leveraging its SWIFT global payment innovation (gpi) service. Two winners will emerge from the Singapore event and will be featured at Sibos […]
Peppermint tech deal with 200,000 strong Philippines distribution network
Perth-based tech company Peppermint Innovation has received a significant boost as it marches towards full commercialisation of its mobile payments technology. The company announced yesterday it had signed a deal with burgeoning Philippines multi-level marketing distribution firm, Sante Barley. Under the deal, Sante Barley’s 200,000 strong network of agents will be able to accept money from their own networks of people and customers who wish to pay their household bills, transfer money to others or even load up some mobile phone air time. Sante Barley agents will use Peppermint’s proprietary, non-bank, mobile payments and remittance technology to do this and both Sante Barley and Peppermint will share a fee each […]
Let’s stop making mobile payments a chore
By Keith Brown, General Manager Product, Scheme and Business Development, BPAY Group You can make a payment on almost any digital device, but why can it still feel like a chore? Mobile has been spruiked across product and marketing strategies in all industries for as long as the smartphone has been around, and yet a decade later we’re still not as digitally savvy as we’d like to think. We have tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches, but discrepancies still exist for user experience across all these devices. There’s an influx of mobile-only banks emerging in the U.K., dedicated to ensuring the experience of banking for their customers on the go is as […]
FlashFX first off the block to use blockchain for international money transfers and launch into Asia
Foreign exchange digital currency provider, FlashFX, announces it is the first Australian company to receive an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) from Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to transfer money internationally using blockchain technology. The FlashFX infrastructure is built on the Ripple distributed ledger technology using their real time currency settlement and payment network. “FlashFX is designed to revolutionise the way everyone makes international money transfers,” says Chief Enabling Officer, Nicolas Steiger. “We purpose built the platform to move money overseas securely, quickly, cheaply and with more control for consumers. “Blockchain offers a cryptographically secure end-to-end payment flow and records all transacted information. Being regulated by ASIC adds that […]
Peppermint secures strategic investment at a premium
Peppermint Innovation Ltd (ASX: PIL) announce a strategic placement agreement has been executed, for the investment of $1,000,000 at 2 cents per share via a placement of 50,000,000 shares in the Company, with an option to place a further $1,000,000 at a 25% premium to 5 day VWAP within 60 days from the first placement. The placement agreement has been executed between the Company and Smidge Digital Unit Trust, an Australian special purpose investment vehicle that subscribes for minority positions in innovative fintech and enterprise data analytics companies. Chris Kain, Managing Director & CEO comments: “This is a significant relationship with a strategic investor who has an intrinsic […]
