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 […]
Xero State of Lending Report: Funding gap is stifling small business growth in Australia
Research unveiled today by Xero suggests Australia’s small businesses could borrow as much as $80 billion over the next 12 months, if they could get the funding. Instead, small businesses are struggling to access the capital they require, in large part due to the complexity of the loan process. This is creating a funding gap and holding back significant jobs and growth opportunities for the Australian economy. According to the Xero State of Lending Report, one in five small business owners (22%) say access to capital is the greatest pain point or perceived threat to their long-term growth aspirations, and a quarter of small business are not very confident in […]
Australian National Blockchain will bring opportunities for disruptive startups, says Data61 senior research scientist
CSIRO’s Data61 data innovation group is collaborating with law firm Herbert Smith Freehills and technology giant IBM to build the Australian National Blockchain (ABN), a large-scale cross-industry platform for smart contracts. The ABN is intended to serve as a national infrastructure, allowing companies to join the network to share digitised contracts. Work is currently underway on a pilot, with the platform expected to be able to host live transactions by mid to late 2019. The decentralised nature of blockchain technology means, once the platform is available, there will be one version of a contract accessible to each involved party. Permission-based access is intended to allow data to be exchanged securely, […]
How a Single Mother and First-time Entrepreneur is Helping People Get Loans in Five Days Using Blockchain
Founder Ruth Hatherley says the technology is a component of Australian fintech start-up Moneycatcha’s overall technical architecture. In 2015, few things happened in Ruth Hatherley’s life that put her “at a bit of a crossroads”. The single mother-of-one then decided to invest all her life savings into creating a prototype of Moneycatcha. Today, Moneycatcha is one of Australia’s leading fintech startups that uses blockchain to make the process of getting home loans quicker and cheaper. The finance industry was a familiar space for the Perth resident, long before Moneycatcha, but she “never really liked it per se”. “Counting money or reading financials didn’t excite me—I have a strange relationship with […]
Australian startups selected for Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab
Eight leading fintech companies have been selected for the fifth annual FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, a 12-week mentorship program created by Accenture. The 2018 program received a record number of applications, from more than 160 companies, and comes at a time when investments into the sector are soaring. According to an Accenture analysis of data from CB Insights, global investment in fintech ventures reached another all-time high in 2017, of US$27 billion, with continued growth in 2018. Launched in Hong Kong in June 2014, the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific has received nearly 600 applications since its inception, with 33 companies participating to date. Alumni companies from the Lab have raised US$288 […]
Raiz chooses Versive’s AI-powered cybersecurity solution to strengthen financial security and compliance
Versive, Inc., an award-winning AI-based cybersecurity company based in Seattle, U.S, today announced that Raiz Invest, a mobile first micro-investment platform based in Australia, is using the Versive Security Engine (VSE) to help protect sensitive customer data and comply with financial regulations. Raiz provides customers an easy way to regularly invest either small or large amounts in one of six portfolios of varying risk levels. The company has 164,000 active customers in Australia, and approximately $200 million in funds under management, growing at over 20 percent each quarter. As a fast-growing financial company, Raiz wanted to increase its level of security. The company already offers bank-level security to consumers through […]
Mastercard tries to make paying with virtual coins easier
Mastercard has landed a US patent for a payment system that would make it easier for people to quickly and securely settle transactions with cryptocurrencies. First reported by Coindesk, Mastercard said its proposed method would mean the payee assumed less risk in a cryptocurrency transaction, which could result in a higher acceptance of virtual coins by merchants. “It often takes a significant amount of time, around ten minutes, for a blockchain-based transaction to be processed, due to the computer processing time and resources required to verify and update the blockchain,” Mastercard said. “Conversely, traditional fiat payment transactions that are processed using payment networks often have processing times that are measured […]