A Focus on the Digital Currency
When the Internet was invented, everyone began to look for ways to make money online. Most of these ways involved using the power and connectivity of the Internet to improve upon old industries. Advertising, retail, communications – everything was being disrupted. The banking industry was the last to be disrupted because of all the regulatory restrictions that are in place with respect to the management of money. Options like PayPal began to emerge as early as 1998, but these systems were mostly just centralized online managers of fiat currency rather than completely new digital currencies. The first true digital currency that has ever received mainstream attention is Bitcoin. It was […]
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. […]
Australian fintech startup HCash just revealed it raised $53 million through an ICO in July
Initial coin offerings (ICOs) are polarising the business world at the moment, but one Australian company has made hay while the sun shines, raising 21,000 Bitcoins worth of capital. Blockchain security startup HCash, which is developing its technology in conjunction with Melbourne’s Monash University, has revealed to Business Insider that the round closed on July 15. Based on that day’s exchange rate, the 21,000 Bitcoins were worth $53 million. ICOs are a method of raising funds where a startup sells electronic tokens or “coins” to buyers that are betting that the business will do well in the future, thereby raising the value of the token. Unlike traditional venture capital, no […]
How the Rich Invest: Owen Kerr is making huge profits in forex with Pepperstone
Profits at Owen Kerr’s foreign exchange broker Pepperstone have surged in the 2017 financial year, as the company enjoyed a large increase in clients from Asia. Pepperstone’s earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) surged 99 per cent to a record $96.7 million from $166 million revenue. Net profit for the firm reached $71.2 million after the Melbourne-based company paid about $25 million in tax, documents recently filed with the corporate regulator revealed. The 2017 results were more than double from the previous year, during which Pepperstone had made a net profit of about $34 million from $96 million revenue and EBIT of $48 million. It also means Pepperstone’s valuation could […]
Bitcoin breaks US$100 Billion in value, soars to over US$6000 for the first time
Bitcoin, which is unarguably the world’s most prominent digital currency, just broke through one of the most important milestones ever, vaulting to over US$6000 and over US$100 billion in value. Welcome to a new kind of currency, or rather, welcome to a new kind of financial system. Today, for the first time ever, Bitcoin surpassed the $6000 barrier, proving that cryptocurrency is, in all likeliness, here to stay. Bitfinex, which has the highest volume BTC/USD exchange, broke the $6,000 barrier initially. Now, the same can be said for all of the other major exchanges. It has only been a little over a week since the price of bitcoin soared passed […]
Blockchain gains traction in fintech as payment networks emerge
J.P. Morgan has created what is arguably one of the largest blockchain payments networks to date. The financial services company announced that the Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. are the first two banks to join the blockchain network, “representing significant cross-border payment volumes.” J.P. Morgan created the Interbank Information Network (IIN), which it said will significantly reduce the number of participants needed to respond to compliance and other data-related inquiries that delay payments. “IIN will enhance the client experience, decreasing the amount of time – from weeks to hours – and costs associated with resolving payment delays,” said Emma Loftus, Head of Global […]
Praemium expands SMA model options
Platform provider Praemium has added 16 new multi-asset model portfolios to its separately managed account offering, expanding the investment options available to users. The listed fintech company announced today that it has struck deals with a number of investment managers, including the introduction of eight new models from Shaw and Partners, four from Joseph Palmer & Sons, three from State Street and one from Evans and Partners. An additional 27 managed funds and 14 exchanged-traded products have also been added to the SMA, bringing the total number of managed funds available to 301. “The addition of these new models and managed funds to the Praemium SMA is part of our […]
Are fintech companies changing the industry for the better?
FinTech is most commonly known as the abbreviation for the term “financial technology” and the name given to an emerging and rapidly growing financial services sector. Financial technology is often used to describe any technological innovations within the financial industry, ranging from banking and investments, all the way through to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. With new technologies come new businesses, and so financial technology companies were born. The question is, however, whether these businesses and the technologies on offer through them are changing the industry for the better, or are they simply a disruption to an already functioning economy? How are fintech companies changing the financial industry? One of the […]
