Venture capital 3.0: the initial coin offering explained
The venture capital community thrives on disruption. So what happens when the tables are turned and the medicine bottle has their name on it? There’s a new kid riding onto the financing block – riding roughshod across an unregulated landscape. Welcome to the world of the initial coin offering (ICO). An ICO is a hybrid: part crowdfunding, part software token, part speculation. In simple terms, an ICO is often described, somewhat inaccurately, as an IPO for cryptocurrencies. How it works – A tech start-up team creates an ICO using a blockchain-enabled software platform, usually open sourced. – The platform is powered by cryptography-based software tokens – called cryptocurrencies. – The […]
Square’s first year of payments: over 60,000 Australian sellers served
Square recently celebrated their one-year milestone since launching Square Reader in Australia, and are excited to announce that since then over 60,000 Australian small businesses have chosen to use one or more Square products and services—including Square Point of Sale, Square Reader, Square Invoices, Employee Management, Virtual Terminal, E-Commerce and their Payment APIs. It has been a busy year of growth for Square and their community of Australian sellers: Square grew rapidly to over 60,000 Australian sellers served by Square across their entire range of products and services. Square are seeing 13% weekly average growth in transactions processed with Square across all products—supported by the unique proposition of Square […]
UK’s open banking revolution has lessons for Australia
There’s a revolution going on in British banking. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued its final order on “open banking” in February. The new regime – on track to come into force next year– is set to have a profound impact on the sector in the coming decades and beyond. Banks have been told that information such as transaction and loan repayment data does not belong to them, but their customers. Those who want to use that data to access better financial products or services will be able to do so in a safe and secure manner. Delivery will be via application programming interfaces (APIs), software that allows […]
Banks may have to sell rivals’ products
Banks could be forced to sell financial products manufactured by competitors under new powers to be given to the corporate regulator. Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman Greg Medcraft said the move could break down the economics of cross-selling and force banks to sell their wealth operations. Foreshadowing the end of the vertically-integrated banking model, Mr Medcraft said new laws will give ASIC a mandate to police competition while “product intervention” powers could be used to ensure banks only sell products that are in the best interests of their customers – which might not necessarily be their own. Mr Medcraft said the regulator could use its new powers to limit […]
Macquarie’s plan to beat the investment robots
Investing robots and index funds are poaching billions of dollars from human fund managers, but Macquarie Investment Management head of the Americas Shawn Lytle says the firm is repositioning to cope with the seismic shift into passive investing. Globally, droves of investors are yanking money from high-fee active managers and parking their funds in passive strategies such as exchange-traded funds that ride the ups and downs of select markets. Macquarie Investment Management, a global division which manages about $US257 billion of Macquarie Group’s $US362 billion in assets under management, is aiming to differentiate by offering more unique actively managed equities, bonds and alternative assets such as infrastructure. “We are at […]
Why your financial adviser loves ETFs
The next time you chat to a financial adviser about portfolio construction strategies, depending on your investment focus of course, the conversation could very well turn to the use of exchange-traded funds. Advisers have become one of the core drivers behind Australia’s rapidly growing ETFs sector, which at the start of this month edged past $26.6 billion in total assets under management. So far this calendar year about $1.2bn in new investor funds have been channelled into ASX-listed ETFs. Research just released by research firm Investment Trends and ETFs issuer BetaShares shows seven out of 10 advisers are either currently recommending the use of ETFs to their clients or intend […]
IRESS readies industry for Fair and Sustainable Superannuation reforms
Financial technology provider IRESS says that just two months out from the introduction of new superannuation laws, administrators and financial advisers should now be in the final stages of preparation. The superannuation laws, known as the Fair & Sustainable Superannuation reforms, introduce new tax concessions, a $1.6 million transfer balance cap, the removal of the tax exemptions for Transition to Retirement pensions and a new system of ‘catch-up’ concessional contributions to assist those with broken work patterns. IRESS’ superannuation administration platform, Acurity, and its financial advice technology, XPLAN, have now provided a range of updates to clients in response to the complex changes, with new versions being provided under existing […]
Fintech no threat yet to big banks: ACCC
The hopes are high that a wave of new fintech players will shake up the big banks and get a better outcome for customers. But we’re not seeing it yet, according to the competition watchdog. “There’s been a lot of talk [about fintech] but not much really happening,” Rod Sims, the chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said at The Australian Financial Review Banking and Wealth Summit. “Let’s hope something does … nothing is happening that is changing the playing field very much.” The role of the ACCC in creating a more competitive landscape in banking has become a hot button issue. A parliamentary inquiry into banking pointed to a regulator […]
