Australia leads the way in revolutionary blockchain technology
Good news on the #Innovation front! Australia leads the way in developing international standards for blockchain technology. Neil Buckland explains this new technology predicted to revolutionise practically anything! Australia leads the way for incorporated blockchain technology Blockchain technology has been in the news a lot recently. Many industries are even predicting it could be the future for the way in which they operate. Australia has recently received the go-ahead to develop the international standards of the technology; a move which Standards Australia says will create better market confidence and certainty. So what exactly is blockchain technology and how could it aid businesses? Understanding blockchain technology Blockchain technology is most commonly […]
Worldpay heads down under with Australia licence
Worldpay, the global leader in payments, is expanding in Australia after winning its licence to process payments in what is one of Asia Pacific’s largest eCommerce markets. The company’s expansion in Australia comes at a time of sustained growth for Worldpay, which processed 13.1bn transactions in 2015 with transaction value of £401.9bn. A number of global companies, including ASOS, Expedia, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Digital World International and Freelancer have already turned to Worldpay for payment processing in Australia. They have been attracted to Worldpay both by the company’s extensive international reach, as well as its ability to process a wide range of alternative payment methods such as eWallets and bank […]
ASX-Listed Australian FinTech company zipMoney – Full Year Results
zipMoney are pleased to announce today their FY16 Annual Results, the first set of accounts as an ASX-listed Company. Some of the key highlights: Transaction volume of $51.5 million, up 962% Loan book (receivables) of $40.7 million, up 1,296% Company revenues of $4.3 million, up 976% More than 50,000 customers and 2,000 merchants Omni-channel strategy delivering volume growth Bad debts of 1.1%, below industry standards FY16 saw a number of very pleasing achievements for the Company. This included strong growth in transaction volume, with more than $50 million processed on the zipMoney payments platform. This was supported by close to 2,000 merchants across their target sectors and a number of […]
ANZ Bank ups cloud focus with open networks for fintech collaboration
ANZ Banking Group has upped the ante in its adoption of cloud-based services in order to pursue a more flexible technology strategy, with Netflix-developed software to stop outages and the door left open to collaborate more openly with emerging fintech start-ups. The bank’s general manager of consumer digital technology Christian Venter told The Australian Financial Review it has significantly increased its use of cloud platforms – most notably the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud – to host more dynamic content on its websites and mobile apps, and was designing new systems that would allow access for data sharing with external organisations. The move to open up systems comes amid a […]
Australia recognised for embracing fintech startups
Australia is establishing hubs and improving business conditions for fintechs. Despite tough market conditions and a global drop in investments, Australia has been praised as a forward-thinking, cultivator of venture-capital (VC) backed fintech startups. KPMG and CB Insights analysed the global status and outlook of fintech venture funding in their Pulse of Fintech Q2 2016 report and found VC-backed fintech companies raised $2.5 billion through 195 deals, a 12% decline in volume compared with Q1 2016. However, funding is on pace to exceed 2015 investment levels. The report says that while some jurisdictions are fighting to advance regulatory changes related to fintech, Australia is establishing hubs and improving conditions for […]
Class partners with MA Operator
Class, the developer of Class Super and Class Portfolio, has partnered with MA Operator, a new fintech which provides managed account and direct client portfolio services for financial advisers. The partnership will enable Class users to securely and instantly automate client data entry and synchronise transactions in MA Operator. This will further increase the efficiencies already offered by MA Operator which reduces the cost and effort of administration, on boarding and ongoing service obligations of monitoring and managing client portfolios. MA Operator also provides sophisticated rebalancing, analytics and automated ROA generation. These features combined with Class’ administration and reporting capabilities will help advisers to deliver more efficient and […]
CBA accused of blocking fintech Acorns in password row
Commonwealth Bank of Australia has sent alarming emails to thousands of its customers who are engaging with fintech start-ups, warning that sharing internet banking passwords could invalidate the protection CBA provides from losses on accounts relating to fraud. But Acorns, which is competing with the banks’ retail wealth divisions, says CBA’s communication is designed to slow its rapid growth and thereby reduce competition. CBA is “cloaking with security messages a way of being anti-competitive to the whole fintech industry,” said George Lucas, chief executive of Acorns in Australia. “It is strategically targeted at fintechs they now see are growing, and we are a major driver of that.” Acorns, a US-based company that helps users invest spare change in exchange traded funds, has been growing its Australian users at around 2500 each week to around 130,000 since its local launch in February. Around 70 per cent […]
SocietyOne’s Jason Yetton backs Maile Carnegie on fintech disruption threat
The former head of Westpac’s retail bank Jason Yetton has backed the call by ANZ’s new head of digital banking Maile Carnegie, who says that big banks will have to lift the pace of innovation in order to fend off disruption from fintech companies seeking a slice of their billions of dollars of profits. In his first speech as chief executive of peer-to-peer lender SocietyOne five months into the job, Mr Yetton said that UBS’s recent forecast of growth in P2P lending activity over the next 12 months of between 47 per cent and 150 per cent was an “increasing possibility” given recent market traction. Australian banks would be disrupted […]
