Banking gap widens as tech-savvy consumers look to new products
They’re called peer-to-peer lenders or fintech companies and they’re shaking up the world of consumer loans and bank deposits. Here’s why. The gap between what people pay for consumer loans and what they get from bank deposits is widening, prompting them to look to new financial technologies for better interest rates. Peer-to-peer lender RateSetter has examined big bank profit margins and found that while they are paying record low rates on deposits their lending rates for personal loans and credit cards continue to climb. “You can drive a bus through the spread between bank deposits and consumer lending rates,” said RateSetter CEO Dan Foggo. “Publicity stunts such as dropping fees […]
Funding.com.au launches mortgage-backed peer-to-peer investor platform
Mortgage lender funding.com.au has just announced the release of its highly anticipated peer-to-peer investor platform – with an impressive advantage over its competitors. Unlike other prominent peer-to-peer lenders including SocietyOne and RateSetter, loans issued by funding.com.au are backed by mortgages over Australian real estate. It is the first startup of its kind in Australia to gain regulatory authorisation to allow both wholesale and retail investors access to residential and commercial mortgages. The platform gives investors direct access to the short to medium term mortgage market – a lucrative asset class that has traditionally been guarded by the banks and sophisticated investors. Individuals, private entities and self managed super funds (SMSF) […]
Facebook’s Messenger payments looms over Australia’s big banks
Facebook’s challenge to Australia’s big banks is coming as early as next year, when the social media giant is expected to introduce peer-to-peer payments within its Messenger service, hot on the heels of local banks’ expected launch of their own P2P payments network. In July, The Australian Financial Review revealed Facebook had been awarded a patent to allow it to launch Messenger payments in Australia, which will allow users to pay family, friends and groups once they have linked up a bank-issued debit card to their social media account. More than 13 million people use Facebook Messenger in Australia each month, a figure that will have local banks – who […]
Jacaranda Incubator Program – Backing Australian Fintech
Jacaranda Finance is on the hunt for Australia’s most exciting, high growth potential Fintech startup, establishing the Jacaranda Incubator Program. Background Jacaranda Finance is one of the fastest growing financial technology start-ups in Australia. With the recent launch of the new and improved Jacaranda decisioning engine, the young startup analyses vast quantities of data from numerous data sources within seconds. This allows the company to make smarter credit decisions and expand the availability of fair, affordable, responsible and more transparent credit solutions for consumers. “It’s no longer hard, expensive or impossible to acquire and process large volumes of data relating to our applicants”, says Daniel Wessels, CEO of Jacaranda. […]
PayPal launches a payments product designed for marketplaces, platforms and crowdfunding sites
PayPal today is beginning the rollout of a new product designed for customers operating larger online marketplaces, like ride-sharing platforms, crowdfunding portals, peer-to-peer e-commerce sites, room rentals platforms, and others. The solution, called simply PayPal for Marketplaces, is designed to be tailored to the business’s needs, based on how much risk they want to manage with regard to their transactions. That means the businesses can decide if they want to handle the payment disputes and chargebacks themselves, or if they want to turn over that responsibility to PayPal to manage instead. Additionally, the new service allows the businesses to customize their implementation of PayPal to fit their needs. For instance, […]
Australian alternative finance market grew by 53% in 2016: Report
The Australian alternative finance (alt-fi) market grew by 53% in 2016, despite declines in equity crowdfunding activity in the face of regulatory uncertainty, according to a study released in September. The study was undertaken by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, the Tsinghua University Graduate School, the Australian Centre for Financial Studies at Monash Business School and KPMG. It found that the Australian alt-fi market has grown 53% over the past 12 months. According to the Cultivating Growth: The 2nd Asia Pacific Alternative Finance Industry Report, which surveyed 628 alt-fi companies, Australia overtook Japan in 2016 to become the second largest alt-fi market in the Asia Pacific, with a market […]
SocietyOne sets new record with triple milestones in 2017
SocietyOne, Australia’s pioneering and leading consumer marketplace lender, has set new records for lending with growth in 2017 already surpassing the level of volumes for the whole of 2016. Total lending since the company started operating five years ago has now topped $350 million as the current loan book also reached $200 million for the first time in SocietyOne’s history. These were new records for a consumer finance marketplace lender in Australia with SocietyOne having originated more than twice the loans than that of the company’s nearest competitor. SocietyOne has now enjoyed seven successive quarters of strong growth as it scales up. New lending to borrowers in […]
How Crowdfunding has influenced start-ups
You have a great idea that you would like to bring to the market. However, you have little to no capital in kick-starting product development. Furthermore, you don’t really have the business acumen and the research and development needed to make a solid business presentation to a group of investors. So, how do you go about finding the seed funding you need to start turning your idea into a reality? Many entrepreneurs in recent years have turned to crowdfunding as a way to reach a large audience to fund product ideas and business models. What Is Crowdfunding? Crowdfunding is an alternative way for businesses, and especially start-ups, to source capital […]
