Digital bank Volt eyes business customers as fintechs chase data
Neobank Volt has small business in its sights as it develops data-driven products, acknowledging that startup founders are the most likely to take up digital banking options first. The startup, which secured a fully fledged banking licence in January and is preparing to launch a consumer offer in coming months, joins other financial technology firms in its quest to offer self-employed customers better products by reviewing their data in real time. Speaking from the sidelines of Salesforce’s World Tour event in Sydney on Wednesday, Volt chief executive Steve Weston said the business was looking at rolling out business transaction accounts, term deposits and business loans from 2020. “The tech community […]
Long-dormant Bitcoin whales resuming activity could rock price action, analysts say
The number of active Bitcoin (BTC) wallets, many of which have long been dormant, has seen an uptick that could herald some major market movements, Bloomberg reports Jan. 11. Bloomberg bases its report on data and analysis from crypto analytics startup Flipside Crypto, which sealed the backing of major crypto exchange Coinbase and veteran crypto venture capital firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) back in November. According to Flipside, as of Oct. 2018, a high number of long-inactive Bitcoin holders — defined as those that haven’t transferred their Bitcoin for between six and thirty months — have begun to transfer their coins, resulting in wallets active over the past month now […]
Banks will assess loans using real spending data: Basiq
A start-up backed by Westpac and National Australia Bank has developed software to read bank account data and automate the loan assessment process for banks, allowing them to base lending decisions on actual customer spending rather than relying on estimates and indexes. Basiq’s system is being used by Regional Australia Bank, whose chief risk officer Campbell Nicoll says asking customers to estimate spending in various categories during an application process no longer cuts it. “People have just been guessing their expenses,” he said. “But Basiq plugs into our bank, extracts two years of transaction data, categorises it – and that and gives us the true picture on expenses.” The Australian […]
Aussie-founded fintech Banked secures $2.7 million in seed funding, to launch open banking data solution
An Aussie-founded fintech, based in London, has secured £1.5 million ($2.66 million) in seed funding, while it’s still pre-product, pre-revenue, and less than a year old. Founded in early-2018 by Australian native and chief executive Brad Goodall, along with co-founders Neil Ambler, Patrick Cox and Ellen Fernandes, Banked aims to open up the possibilities of financial data by providing a trustworthy channel of communication between banks, businesses and individuals. The entirety of the seed funding has come from London-based venture capital firm Backed VC, although Goodall tells StartupSmart he is in talks with other investors regarding a potential secondary seed raise. Open banking came into effect in the UK earlier […]
Priviti is a finalist in Westpac’s Innovation Challenge as Australia prepares for data privacy legislation
Selected as one of five finalists, Priviti’s patented consent management solution gives users greater control over how their data is shared and mitigates companies’ compliance and reputational risk amid growing data privacy concerns. Australian bank Westpac has announced that Priviti is one of five finalists for its 2018 Innovation Challenge, an initiative that gives startups the opportunity to pitch their ideas to help businesses meet their regulatory obligations and drive game-changing enhancements to customer experience. As Australia prepares for Open Banking standards and the Consumer Data Right, this year’s Challenge features RegTech solutions addressing topical issues including responding to regulatory change, ensuring customer privacy and consent, and product management. The […]
Verrency adds two more partners – Basiq and Pulse iD – to enable financial data aggregation and geolocation services to be easily accessed by banks
Australian global payments innovator Verrency has certified two new strategic partners, Basiq and Pulse iD, to enhance the commercial offerings it enables for issuers and banks. Announcing the partnership today at Money 20/20 in Las Vegas, the deal enables Basiq and Pulse iD to easily distribute their financial data aggregation and geolocation services to global financial institutions via Verrency’s integration platform. Verrency Founder and CEO, David Link, said Basiq and Pulse iD are fantastic additions to Verrency’s growing fintech services marketplace, V+, in making it increasingly easier for banks and issuers to innovate at scale by significantly reducing their own cost of integration with FinTechs. In accessing Basiq via the […]
Basiq and Verrency enable banks to drastically improve the quality of their data
Basiq and Verrency have joined forces to enable banks to store clean, categorised and enhanced transaction data – in real-time, at point of purchase. This will uncover new opportunities for banks to offer their customers innovative, and personalised products and experiences. We are all aware of how ‘unclear’ transaction data can be. Think of how often customers call banks with queries – they have no idea what an item on their credit card statement called ‘HT Willis Brook’ is. You may have heard the term ‘garbage in – garbage out’. If a bank stores unclear transaction data when a customer makes a purchase, this data is then passed downstream to […]
Irish fintech Priviti launches in Sydney as Australia prepares for Open Banking and the Consumer Data Right
As Australia prepares for its new Open Banking standards and the Consumer Data Right, Priviti, the global fintech company, is helping banks get ready to comply with new legislation and empower consumers with greater control over how their personal data is shared. Its extensive experience with global data protection laws such as PSD2 and GDPR means Priviti has seen the paradigm shift in the way financial organisations and individuals view their data, and how their systems need to change, explains Dermot McCann, Priviti’s Head of APAC. “Every day a bank is potentially engaging in new activities that could impair their compliance, particularly now in this new era of Australian Open […]
