Bitcoin moves smoothly into ‘real’ cash
News that bitcoin ATMs are being installed in larger numbers around Australia shows the growing popularity of the online currency, at a time when we are using cash less and less. Bitcoin joins the thousands of currencies around the world that are generally known as ‘complementary’ to the official monetary system. But it is one of the most successful. A big draw for bitcoin users is that it is supposed to be reasonably anonymous. Once a person has signed up to the bitcoin system, the blockchain, they can set up any number of ‘addresses’ and use them for sales and purchases. Another reason for its popularity is that it cuts […]
Finch raises $2.25m for Gen Y finance app after ‘proving it can rival’ Silicon Valley fintechs
New advice fintech WealthO2 doubles FUA in 3 months
WealthO2, the fintech for financial advisers, has doubled in funds under administration between June 2017 and October 2017.
Investment platform Stake opens the US floodgates for self-managed super accounts
Stake, the fintech platform redesigning investing for Australians, today announced the beta launch of Stake Premium, which gives self-managed superannuation funds direct access to commission-free US share trading for the first time. Stake has also appointed Matthew Rady, a global financial markets expert and former IRESS executive, as Head of Business Development to help expand Stake into new services and offerings for investors and prospective partners. Stake Premium takes the features already available to Stake members — zero brokerage, paperless sign-up and a powerful dashboard to discover and buy US shares at any amount — and makes it available to the $700 billion SMSF market in Australia to help diversify […]
Melbourne ‘buy now, pay later’ fintech Openpay just raised $10 million and cancelled IPO
Openpay has completed a $10 million capital raising round, and revealed it has cancelled plans for an initial public offering. The $10 million, which was originally marked as a pre-IPO round, came from “a group of investors” that included existing backer Meydan Group, as well as Investec and SL Investments Group. The company did not comment on the reasons for cancelling the IPO plans. Business Insider understands that chief executive Simon Scalzo departed the company in August after less than a year at the helm, with chairperson Avi Schechter currently acting as the public face of the fintech. The latest investment also sees Investec head of emerging companies David Phillips […]
University of Sydney’s super-fast blockchain gets even faster
World-wide tests reveal Red Belly Blockchain’s impressive speed New global trials have shown the University of Sydney’s super-fast ‘Red Belly Blockchain’ can process financial transactions 50 percent faster than first anticipated – outperforming some market leaders including VISA for world-wide payments. Blockchain technology is best known as technology that underpins Bitcoin. Blockchain is a public ledger allowing secure and almost instantaneous digital transfer of virtual currencies across the world. The ‘Red Belly Blockchain’ is being developed by researchers at the University of Sydney’s School of Information Technologies. Dr Vincent Gramoli, who heads up the Concurrent Systems Research Group developing the blockchain, said trials over the past three months showed the […]
Blockchain gains traction in fintech as payment networks emerge
J.P. Morgan has created what is arguably one of the largest blockchain payments networks to date. The financial services company announced that the Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. are the first two banks to join the blockchain network, “representing significant cross-border payment volumes.” J.P. Morgan created the Interbank Information Network (IIN), which it said will significantly reduce the number of participants needed to respond to compliance and other data-related inquiries that delay payments. “IIN will enhance the client experience, decreasing the amount of time – from weeks to hours – and costs associated with resolving payment delays,” said Emma Loftus, Head of Global […]
IBM develops blockchain system for banks
The company expects to process up to 60% of all cross-border payments in the South Pacific by early 2018. International technology company IBM has joined forces with blockchain startup Stellar and payments company KlickEx Group to enable high-speed cross-border payments for banks and other financial institutions. The aim of the payments process is to speed up clearances and settlements on a single network in real time. Blockchain, the technology behind bitcoin, is a revolutionary distributed-ledger technology that offers a secure and immediate way of transferring a range of data – more specifically, in this case, currency transactions. IBM’s solution is already active, processing live transactions across 12 different currency corridors […]
