Pocket money should be electronic to match kids’ spending
PARENTS are being urged to pay pocket money in a digital form as traditional cash nears extinction. While some advisers still recommend teaching children money skills using dollars and cents, there’s a strong chance that today’s primary school students will rarely — if ever — transact with cash. Many of their most common purchases — such as snacks at school, music and video games — are already bought online, and the trend has sprouted a new breed of digital pocket money options. Claire Morris, co-founder of online gift card marketplace Prezzee, said digital pocket money made it easier for parents to monitor spending and saving. “Cash is harder to keep […]
Nothing to fear from robo-advice: Magellan
Hamish Douglass believes financial advisers should not fear robo-advice in an era where artificial intelligence and big data can dominate discussion.
Fintech saves British businesses £4.6 billion
The UK fintech market is booming, leading the way for the rest of world as investment continues to strengthen. Fintech is making an entrance into a majority of UK businesses, with 65 per cent found to be bringing on board at least one service, and 77 per cent aware of opportunities. A significant number of firms are going further than just testing the fintech water, with 19 per cent now leveraging four solutions from the emerging market. This information has been collected and presented by MarketInvoice, from which it has estimated that UK businesses have saved £4.6 billion by adopting fintech. Savings are a driving factor for businesses looking to […]
A Central Bank blockchain could make other banks obsolete
Will banks like ANZ and Westpac go the way of the record store? Professor David Yermack from NYU Stern School of Business thinks so. He argues it’s only a matter of time before Central Banks withdraw banknotes from circulation and put the national currency into an electronic blockchain rending other banks “unnecessary”. The distributed ledger technology promises to give Central Banks much greater control over national currencies and could put an end to money laundering and tax evasion, argues Yermack, who counts bitcoin and cryptocurrencies among his areas of expertise. “It’s not a question of if but when a country will do this. And my expectation is that the benefits […]
Acorns Australia chief George Lucas on the challenges facing Aussie fintechs, and the future of the industry
Since launching its fintech offerings early last year, Acorns Australia has been embraced by consumers looking for alternatives to traditional financial institutions, but its chief executive and director George Lucas says Australia still has a way to go to improve innovation and support for startups in the space. Acorns is an app that allows users to invest their spare change in five diversified investment portfolios by automatically ’rounding up’ leftovers from small transactions like daily coffee purchases, incrementally investing these roundups and allowing users to track the performance of their portfolios. Acorns Australia was founded in 2015 as a joint venture with Lucas’ company, Instreet Investment Limited and US fintech […]
Reimagining wealth management for the digital age
David Levi looks at why responding to the digital challenge is not just about defence but about shaping a new era of wealth management. As consumer needs and the financial landscape evolve, major banks are being forced to reconsider their approach to wealth management services. Colonial First State, for example, has predicted that the retirement of Baby Boomers would result in unprecedented transfers of wealth. Similarly, Citigroup announced its plans to triple the size of its wealth management business in Australia by 2020, as it targets customers with more than $1 million to invest. While the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) reports that private sector forecasts superannuation assets […]
IDC names top 10 fastest growing fintech companies in A/NZ
IDC Financial Insights has unveiled a list of 10 fast-growing fintechs in Australia and New Zealand (A/NZ) as part of the broader FinTech 101 list for Asia/Pacific. “IDC’s FinTech Fast 101” refers to the fast-growing fintech players in Asia/Pacific based on extensive on-ground analysis of the dominant fintech players within the region. 10 Fastest Growing FinTechs in Australia and New Zealand Afterpay Touch Group Airwallex CoinJar Data Republic Harmoney HashChing identitii Prospa SocietyOne Xero Note: List is arranged alphabetically, Source IDC, 2017 IDC’s fintech list makes a reference to the Financial Insights’ Triple U framework — ubiquity, utility, and usability. This is a framework that evaluates fintech data across key metrics such as addressable […]
No reason why Australia should not be a global leader in the fintech sector
by Scott Morrison MP, Federal Treasurer Digital disruption in financial services is changing the world. The opportunities that spring from this disruption, in a region with an Asian middle class increasingly empowered by choice, are there for our taking. Recently I travelled to Beijing to lead our representation at the Strategic Economic Dialogue with the Chinese government, and meet with major Chinese firms who are investing in Australia. Among the encouraging signs of China’s pursuit of sustainable economic growth, the prudency in which it is addressing debt and its continued openness to trade and investment, is the pace of digital change within their economy. While Silicon Valley, London or Singapore […]
