50 person Facebook team plans cryptocurrency payment tech, report says
The purported coin is geared for ordinary money transfers and not investment speculation, according to The New York Times. Ready to send some virtual money to your Facebook friends or WhatsApp contacts so you can split the restaurant bill? Maybe someday you’ll be using a cryptocurrency to do so. Many people in the tech world have soured on cryptocurrencies and their accounting underpinnings, called blockchain. But Facebook remains interested, with a 50 person project underway to build a technology that’ll let members send each other digital money, The New York Times reported Thursday. Cryptocurrencies initially excited fans who wanted a new digital-era payment mechanism, but as the hype increased, investors […]
Macquarie Group invests in market-changing technology firm Quantexa to accelerate the future of AI-enabled decisioning technology
Quantexa, the data analytics firm, has announced a strategic investment and partnership from Macquarie Group to provide actionable customer intelligence. The strategic partnership will help Quantexa accelerate the growth of its AI-enabled network analytics technology which provides enterprise-wide solutions serving multiple use cases including fraud detection, money laundering prevention, credit risk decisioning and customer insights. The investment follows a Series B funding raise in July in which Quantexa raised $20 million from HSBC, Albion Capital and Dawn Ventures. “We are delighted to have Macquarie become part of the Quantexa journey,” said Vishal Marria, Chief Executive Officer of Quantexa. “Macquarie’s expertise and appetite for innovation will help us to continue to […]
The Banking Royal Commission’s final report: How Basiq can help
With the release of the banking royal commission’s final report, it is clear that responsible lending remains a key concern within the financial services industry. Basiq’s Affordability API can ensure that lenders are carrying out efficient and responsible lending based on high-quality data. In response to lending concerns banks have adopted more stringent serviceability assessments in compliance with existing consumer credit laws. A significant factor in the tightening of loan assessments is the process of verification. According to the report, verification should take into account both income and expenditure and go beyond taking an applicant at their word. This is especially as according to the the Australian Financial Review: “more […]
Raiz Invest partners with UNSW to power rewards with machine learning
Raiz Invest Limited, the mobile-first micro-investing platform, has partnered with UNSW and with support from the NSW Government to develop a machine-learning recommendation engine for its Raiz Rewards. The new technology will recommend to Raiz customers more relevant offers and brands. It’s designed to provide a more seamless, personalised experience for customers when navigating more than 165 brands on Raiz Rewards. With a customer base of more than 179,000, skewing towards the under-35 demographic, the intuitive experience provided by machine-learning will better address the demands of this millennial audience. “Millennials have grown up with technology at their fingertips. They expect all their interactions to be easy to navigate and, above […]
Square and MYOB team up to help small businesses
From today, global payments provider Square is teaming up with MYOB, one of Australia’s leading providers of online accounting solutions, to help time-poor business owners better manage their payments. The new partnership will completely automate the payment process for business owners, ensuring they no longer have to waste time manually rekeying their sales or customer data, making reconciling accounts easier than ever. The comprehensive integration will enable transaction data processed via Square’s payment platform to move simply and securely through to the business owner’s MYOB account. It will allow business owners to easily reconcile their sales in a number of different ways, including: by product or category, by store location, […]
How the Banking Royal Commission will affect the auto-financing industry
The recent release of the banking royal commission’s interim report has highlighted that responsible lending practices need to be extended to the auto-finance industry. The implications of this for entities making car loans is significant as 90% of all car sales are currently arranged through finance, many of which have fallen short of responsible lending provisions. According to the report it is not enough just use ‘likelihood of default’ as a measure of loan suitability. Prior to making an assessment on whether a loan is suitable, the licensee must now take a number of steps to ensure responsible lending provisions are met. These necessary steps include: “making reasonable inquiries about […]
BGL releases new fund transfer feature for Simple Fund 360
BGL Corporate Solutions, Australia’s leading supplier of SMSF administration and ASIC corporate compliance solutions, has released an automated fund transfer feature in Simple Fund 360. This feature allows funds to be transferred between Simple Fund 360 clients. “This was the No 1 feature requested by clients” said BGL’s Managing Director, Ron Lesh. “In the past, BGL had to handle this process much of which involved manual loading of files and data input”. Now, Simple Fund 360 can transfer funds from one subscription to another with a few mouse clicks. All fund details, data feeds and full transaction history are moved across and a copy of the fund remains with the […]
A faster, more efficient cryptocurrency
MIT researchers have developed a new cryptocurrency that drastically reduces the data users need to join the network and verify transactions — by up to 99 percent compared to today’s popular cryptocurrencies. This means a much more scalable network. Cryptocurrencies, such as the popular Bitcoin, are networks built on the blockchain, a financial ledger formatted in a sequence of individual blocks, each containing transaction data. These networks are decentralized, meaning there are no banks or organizations to manage funds and balances, so users join forces to store and verify the transactions. But decentralization leads to a scalability problem. To join a cryptocurrency, new users must download and store all transaction […]
