Putting the service back into ‘Financial Services’
Founded in 1998, well before Fintech had emerged as a moniker for disruptors in the finance industry, OFX (formerly OzForex) has been at the forefront of international money transfer services for nearly 20 years. From humble beginnings in a garage in Dee Why, the company has grown from an information only facility, providing up to the minute insights to the best available foreign exchange rates, to a global organisation, handling over $100B in transactions. Fuelled by a desire to ‘give Australians a fair go’ when it came to foreign exchange, the Company has consistently stuck to its ‘fair go’ and ‘great service’ roots. Developing partnership networks with a panel of […]
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 […]
Netwealth founders say AI, data mining to shape $750b platform market
The founders of financial planning platform Netwealth predict artificial intelligence and data mining will lead innovation in the fast-growing platform market, ahead of an expected $900 million sharemarket listing of the family company later this year, which could catapult its founders onto the Financial Review Rich List. Michael Heine, his brother Leslie Heine and and Michael’s son Matt Heine, founded the company, which provides software and financial products to non-bank aligned financial planners, in 1999. Since then, Netwealth, which now has funds under management, administration and advice of $15.5 billion and employs 220 staff, is among a clutch of increasingly influential companies that have built businesses by signing up advisers […]
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 […]
A Bitcoin for your thoughts?
By Naomi Christopher, Midwinter Financial Services, Senior Manager – Brand Those of us in the tech world can all agree that Bitcoin is genuinely starting to take off or at least cause a stir…. If by take-off you mean clamber $672 bucks one day and slide down $384 the next. But while some of us look on with wide eyed enthusiasm as the price of it continues to climb and fall and then climb and fall (but mostly climb at the moment!), much of the rest of the world continues to scratch their heads as they grapple to understand “what’s it all about?” And of course, whether it is in […]
Australians quick to embrace fintech financial solutions
One third of Australians believe they’ll use a tech company for the majority of their financial needs within five years. While many people around the world feel they need to stick with their bank, out of a sense of loyalty, or simply because they’re unaware of their options, this isn’t the case in Australia. Australians are among the most likely to seek alternatives to the mainstream banks, according to TransferWise’s Future of Finance Report, out today, which surveyed 20,000 people around the world. The report also revealed Australians are early adopters of fintech solutions; that is, anything from PayPass and Tap and Go contactless payments to digital wallets such as […]
Graham Tuckwell says active managers are threatened by ETFs
Graham Tuckwell, the Australian Rich Lister behind the world’s first gold exchange traded fund (ETF), has slammed the active funds management industry as his firm gears up for a fresh push into the Australian market. Mr Tuckwell spoke to The Australian Financial Review as he prepares to take full control of a suite of exchange traded funds launched as a joint venture with ANZ. The philanthropist and entrepreneur delivered a broadside to the hordes of stock pickers who underperformed their respective benchmarks and were handsomely paid for their services. “There are a huge amount of active managers being paid 1 per cent to 1.5 per cent for matching or even […]
