Australia needs to foster FinTech with level playing field
The recent Presidential election in the US and the Brexit vote in the UK clearly show that the public in liberal democracies like Australia are tired of failure by governments to ensure social justice is being served on all levels. Political and corporate leaders appear to the public to act with impunity and social policies are not addressing the increasing inequality of wealth. These leaders seem to be out of touch with their constituents, illustrated by the surprise results in US and UK. Leaders in Australia should be warned — they ignore, at their peril, social justice issues such as the behaviour of the ‘Big Four’ banks, who operate in […]
Returns on IPOs Jump in 2016
Year-to-date returns on Australian Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) sat at an impressive 35.8% as at November 30, compared to just 2.7% for the S&P/ASX200, a sign of a healthy company float market, according to Ben Bucknell, Chief Executive of OnMarket BookBuilds (OMB). The OnMarket November IPO Report reveals over the month of November, 12 companies raised a total $1.95 billion by floating on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), well up on the five listings in November 2015 which raised $558 million. The average return on those IPOs was 5.2%, a 2.8% outperformance of the S&P/ASX 200. Ben Bucknell, Chief Executive of OnMarket BookBuilds (OMB), said it has been a good […]
Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia
Congratulations to those Australian FinTech companies that appeared on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia winners list and taking out the Top 3 places! #1 – Cashrewards #2 – MoneyMe Financial Group #3 – OpenMarkets #6 – Prospa #12 – DigitalX #24 – Mobile Embrace #42 – Class Read all about it here.
Fintech fund Reinventure seeking riskier investments
Armed with a $50 million cheque from Westpac and many lessons from their first fund, Danny Gilligan and Simon Cant are dialling up the risk. Not the type that raises eyebrows in banking, but rather trying to get more blockbuster returns out of the more mainstream fintech industry, even if that means failing often. “If you look at the data out of the US, the greatest risk as a venture capitalist is that you don’t take enough risk,” Gilligan told The Australian in their first interview since the founders of venture capitalist group Reinventure raised their second fund. “The worst-performing VC funds in the US, 50 per cent of the […]
How your broker’s performance numbers mislead you
by Doug Morris, CEO, Sharesight The human brain is easily conditioned. Do something for long enough and even the strangest things begin to appear normal. Online brokers don’t set out to deceive but the simplistic way they report performance has a similar, normalising effect. If your returns have been presented in a particular way for long enough, the figures become right even when they’re wrong. This is a problem for Sharesight as much as it is for the clients of online brokers. Accustomed to seeing the most basic reporting in their account, they load their data into Sharesight and struggle to understand how two sets of figures can be so […]
Moneysoft launches new package designed to boost client engagement, satisfaction and revenue
Leading personal financial management (PFM) software provider Moneysoft has launched a complete package of resources and tools to help financial advisers introduce an effective, profitable budgeting and cashflow management service to their clientbase. Developed in conjunction with advisers, the Moneysoft Business Processes toolkit contains a series of eBooks, video tutorials, blogs, and client-facing brochures and templates. It is a complete, step-by-step guide on how to build and deliver a relevant goals-based, money management proposition; how to grow and diversify practice revenue; and how to achieve a deeper client engagement through “cashflow as a service”. According to Peter Malekas, managing director of Moneysoft, the ready availability of cloud-based Software as a […]
Prospa takes first place in Smart50 Awards
Prospa took out first place at the Smart50 Awards in Melbourne last night. The Awards recognise Australia’s top 50 fastest growing SMEs and were dominated by fintechs and retailers. Prospa was awarded first place with incredible growth of more than 1000% over the past three years. “We are thrilled to be named #1 in Australia,” said Beau Bertoli, Joint CEO of Prospa. “Winning demonstrates that we understand the finance needs of small businesses. However this is just the beginning of our journey. We’ll continue to innovate and create ground breaking finance experiences to help Australian small businesses succeed.” “We’re the leading online lender to small business […]
