No need for national digital dollars: RBA
The Reserve Bank of Australia and a global investment bank say the speed of payments innovation will fend off any threat from cryptocurrencies, and creating digitised versions of central bank money will make bank runs much more likely during a crisis. After last year’s speculative bitcoin bubble, the potential for the Australian central bank to issue digital dollars to allow money to move through distributed ledgers is fading. RBA assistant governor Michelle Bullock told a global audience at Sibos that while it’s still open to considering wholesale applications for a digital Australian dollar, it hasn’t yet been convinced of the need to create one, and the RBA does not want […]
SendGold platform brings real assets to digital currency
SendGold, a Sydney based fintech company with an asset-based peer-to-peer digital money platform, has launched an equity crowdfunding campaign to raise $2 million. SendGold is hyper-liquid, hyper-accessible, and based on physical gold, one of history’s most reliable assets. SendGold is an alternative to bank money as it allows its customers to save, invest, gift and pay using gold. The SendGold technology platform is highly scalable and its business model addresses some of the largest markets in the world, including not only gold, but payments, gaming and rewards, targeting Asia’s fast-growing and increasingly wealthy middle class. SendGold CEO and co-founder Jodi Stanton said, “We believe the world’s current money systems are […]
Small and mighty: Meet the challenger banks nipping at the heels of the big four
A slew of challenger banks are poised to burst onto the Australian finance scene, in a bid to take on the big four, and change the way that Aussies think about banking. Typically offering cloud-based banking services without a bricks-and-mortar branch in sight, these so-called ‘neobanks’ say they will provide a more personal banking service, designed to be more in line with what modern bank customers want, whether that’s near real-time updates on spending and saving, or personalised lending for small business customers. Who are the challengers? They’re all still awaiting banking licences, but there are four major challenger banks coming out of Australia, at varying stages of readiness. They […]
60% of Australians pay bills using BPAY
Australians have a knack for downplaying their greatest inventions, and BPAY is one of them. 20 years ago BPAY was introduced across nearly every bank in the country to help people pay bills and to help businesses get paid. On average people pay 5 or 6 bills a month, and around 60% of Australians pay those bills using BPAY* 88% of Australians recognise the iconic BPAY logo, as it’s on nearly every major bill in the country and in almost every internet banking platform* According to Keith Brown, BPAY Group’s General Manager of Product, Scheme & Business Development, BPAY is still growing even after 20 years of leading bill payments. […]
NAB to fund energy fintech Brighte, backed by Mike Cannon-Brookes
National Australia Bank has applied its special lending framework designed to support fintech start-ups to offer a scalable, debt financing package to Brighte, the home energy lender backed by Atlassian founder Mike Cannon-Brookes. NAB has provided a $20 million debt facility to Brighte, which will make its first drawdown on the funds in the coming weeks, and the bank has an appetite to increase that amount. Demand for solar panels and batteries is expected to surge as more households look to reduce home energy bills. The deal is the latest for NAB in the fintech space, after it provided a debt facility to instalment payments provider Afterpay, which was initially […]
2018-19 Budget steady for Australian fintech – but the big news is yet to come
Australia’s fintech industry will benefit from a number of important support measures in last night’s 2018-19 Australian Budget but will be forced to wait for the big news about the details of Australia’s open banking framework. FinTech Australia chair Stuart Stoyan said he welcomed a number of funding measures outlined in the budget. These included: $44.6 million over four years from 2018-19 to help Australian consumers to more easily access and use their own data, with the banking sector to be the first Australian industry sector to be subject to this consumer right. $700,000 in 2018-19 for the Digital Transformation Agency to investigate areas where blockchain technology could ‘offer the […]
How cashless payment technology is helping local business thrive
The days when a trip to the ATM was compulsory before strolling to your local market are numbered. Instead small businesses now find themselves faced with the new breed of “cashless consumer”, and adapting to suit. According to a recent survey by the RFi Group, 32 per cent of Australians believe they can go cashless. Fortunately, the advent of low-cost and low-fuss technology allows local businesses, including sole traders, to sell their products and services quickly and easily, whether it’s a small item or a more expensive impulse purchase. A shift in mindset Michael McQueen, retail trend forecaster and bestselling author of How to Prepare Now for What’s Next, says […]
How Fintech is changing the way we do business?
Although it seems ubiquitous, Fintech is actually still a very young industry. That said, there are certainly distinctly common threads across those within it, which could largely be considered increased accessibility, and speed. Fintech is responsible for the introduction and rise of peer-to-peer payments, mobile banking, and omnichannel payments processing which benefit not only individuals but also businesses. We’re living, working, shopping, and transacting in the internet era, so it’s expected that the way we do businesses is equally as nimble – and it’s Fintech that makes this possible. Regardless of the size of a business, keeping up to date with financial technology is imperative for not only increased efficiencies […]
