NSW trade minister welcomes $1.1 billion tech company TransferWise to Sydney
A global tech company founded by Skype’s first employee and valued at $1.1 billion will set up shop in Sydney as it looks to strengthen its footing in the Asia-Pacific region. TransferWise CEO and co-founder Taavet Hinrikus says the rapid take-up of their international money transfers platform in Australia prompted them to expand down under. “Sydney is a great city and we’re looking forward to becoming part of the tech community,” he says. “Since launching TransferWise here, it’s become one of our fastest-growing routes.” New South Wales minister for trade Stuart Ayres says the government has been actively driving efforts to attract fast growing companies to the state in 10 […]
A financial market on your phone – innovation winner’s next goal
A university professor, whose fraud-detection computer program has revolutionised the world’s financial markets and won the Prime Minister’s Innovation Prize, has a bigger goal in sight – creating a financial market on your phone. Professor Michael Aitken and his team created the SMARTS system, which catches insider trading and market manipulation around the world with such success it was sold in 2010 for $90 million to the world’s largest exchange company, the US-based Nasdaq. That sale helped fund a new generation of research entrepreneurs under Professor Aitken’s Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre, which is using the same technology to pick up fraud, abuse, waste and over-servicing in the health and […]
Money for millennials: six popular investment options
Millennials have been locked out of the housing market, so are there other avenues of investment open to them? Certainly, the finance industry is working hard on creating products for younger people, but where to turn? The plan for young Aussies has always been: work hard, save your money, buy a house, start a family, then worry about the rest later. Now that the average 20 per cent deposit in Sydney and Melbourne sits at $156,000 and $115,200, respectively, part three (buy a home) in that classic four-point plan is changing. Claire Mackay, a director at Quantum Financial, says that whatever investment choice is made by a millennial investor, the […]
Can robots beat humans as financial advisers?
Jason Lim wants to save enough for a deposit on an apartment but was earning next to nothing by having his money with his bank. He wanted to get some advice on where to invest his money, but a traditional adviser was not for him. “I wanted to earn more than I could get with the bank but was not confident about the level of professionalism in financial advice,” Lim says. The 24-year-old from Melbourne opted for “robo-advice” instead. Robo-advice, or automated advice, is provided online as well as usually on smartphones and iPads. Investors answer a series of questions about themselves and, in response, they receive an investment recommendation. […]
Pushpay ASX float is a leap of faith
It used to involve putting cash into the collection plate but now giving to a church can happen with a few taps on a mobile phone. The co-founder of Pushpay, which will list on the Australian Securities Exchange on Wednesday, says the fintech’s revenue will triple and its cash flow become positive by the end of 2017, driven by more members of religious congregations in the United States making donations through smartphones. Pushpay, which offers a payments application to individual churches throughout the US, completed a $54 million placement to local institutions through Ord Minnett last week in a bookbuild at $2.09 a share. The offer was revealed by Street […]
ANZ Apple Pay users hit 250,000
Around a quarter of a million ANZ Banking Group customers are understood to be using Apple Pay, a number that exceeds the bank’s expectations four months after the service was launched. It’s also a number that’s set to rise, with ANZ to announce on Tuesday that its Mastercard customers are also able to load their credit cards into Apple’s digital wallet. Apple has restricted ANZ’s reporting of the number of cards that have been loaded onto Apple Pay since it jumped ahead of its rivals at the end of April and struck a deal with the tech giant to allow ANZ Visa and American Express cards to be loaded onto […]
Coles backs Westpac, CommBank, NAB, and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank in Apple Pay fight
Retailers including Coles have thrown their support behind a push by several big banks to put their rivalry aside and negotiate as a bloc with Apple over its digital payments service. Apple’s current constraints on “digital wallets” provided on the iPhone threaten to stifle innovation and competition, the retail industry’s peak body told the competition watchdog. In what the banks say is a world first, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank are seeking an exemption from competition laws so they can negotiate as one, and launch a collective boycott of Apple Pay. The move, if approved, is intended to pressure the technology giant to allow […]
digi.cash launches digital Australian dollar
digi.cash, a spin-off company of the Capital Markets CRC, today officially launched the digital Australian dollar. The electronic version of the currency is digitally ‘minted’ as electronically signed coins and banknotes. These can be held on smartphones, computers or storage media. Just like cash, online users can transfer coins and notes between each other via free, instant transactions. The encryption technology used means that the electronic banknotes can securely circulate over public communication networks, without the risk of theft or counterfeiting. Digi.cash founder Andreas Furche, along with Chairman David Skellern and Director Peter Clare, said the launch represented a fulcrum moment for Australian FinTech. “Unlike other digital money products, digi.cash […]
