Home loan wrecker Athena proves demand for a new lending alternative
Homeowners don’t realise how much they’re being ripped off with rates. A new alternative has launched today on a mission to save Australians a lot of money by helping them pay off their home loan faster. A game-changing shake-up of the mortgage market has arrived with the launch of Athena – a home loan company on a mission to help Australians pay off their home loan faster. Launching with a highly competitive variable rate from 3.49% p.a for owner occupier principal and interest loans, and one of the best in market rates for investors starting at 3.89% p.a, Athena offers a genuine alternative to homeowners looking for change with their […]
Tech puts value of advice in question
Addressing a room of financial advisers at the Portfolio Construction Forum’s 2019 Finology Summit yesterday, US-based financial planner, Michael Kitces, says advisers should turn their attention away from the regulators and towards technology if they want to stay relevant. Kitces said technology has slowly (and silently) been disrupting the financial advice industry since Wall Street brokers traded stocks for non-negotiable fixed prices in the 50s, and, while advisers may think it’s the regulators that are forcing change, Kitces makes the point that regulators are simply reacting to it. “There’s a tendency to solve the last crisis rather than the next one,” he said. But, five industry trends he sees reshaping […]
Big four banks consider creating their own digital brands
Each of the big four banks have considered launching new digital bank brands to attract new, young, digital-savvy customers. Apart from National Australia Bank’s UBank, the plans have been non-starters, getting lost among layers of bureaucracy, management changes and restrictions on new investment. But the pending launch of Volt Bank, which on Tuesday received an unrestricted banking licence from the prudential regulator, and with Up already in the market, the majors might be forced to reconsider whether creating entirely new standalone digital brands, or partnering with emerging players in the emerging “neobank” space, is needed to stay on the front foot in the fast-moving world of digital banking. NAB is […]
Keeping up with data in the financial landscape of the future
By Scott Hubbard, Managing Director ANZ, MapR Changing consumer behaviour and the growing need for customer centricity are reshaping the banking and financial services industry (BFSI), however underpinning this is data and applications. We are now living in a world where a massive amount of data is being generated by an increasing number of sources and it’s up to organisations to take advantage. In fact, IDC reports that worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will reach $260 billion USD in 2022. For banks, the increase in both scale and speed of their applications and data processing, means they can leverage data analytics to create better services for […]
Fiserv open banking survey shows emergence of strategic focus
Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions, today announced the results of a survey revealing insights into the implementation of open banking initiatives by banks in the U.K., Poland, France and Australia. To date, banks have primarily focused on compliance, with only 42 percent of respondents (and just 24 percent in Australia) saying their strategy for open banking goes beyond day one. However, some banks are beginning to leverage open banking for strategic initiatives such as improving customer service. Banks are united in the belief that open banking will have an impact on financial activities, with 67 percent expecting at least a moderate impact, […]
Financial services urged to ‘Hayne-proof your business now’
Expertise automation platform, Open Orbit, is urging financial services firms not to wait until February, but to ‘Hayne-proof” their business immediately using new “expertise automation” (EA) technologies that could minimise impacts from the Royal Commission on customers, reputation, and costs. These technologies use AI and algorithmic guidance to optimise highly cognitive tasks that require thinking, reasoning, decision-making, understanding, and learning, in order to eliminate problematic, human-driven processes at half the cost and time of a consultant. Firms that use these now could quickly gain a competitive advantage compared to those who wait for the recommendations of the Commission before overhauling processes, according to Open Orbit. “When Commissioner Hayne hands down […]
How one financial planner’s cultural change is helping tackle Australia’s debt problem
Financial planners are helping to tackle Australia’s escalating debt problem as the industry shifts from selling products to providing holistic advice with money management at its core. Australia’s household debt-to-income ratio has risen sharply in recent years and now ranks as one of the highest in the world at about 190 per cent, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia. Meanwhile, more than one in six (18.5 per cent) consumers are struggling under a mountain of credit card debt, according to a report by the corporate regulator, ASIC. Yet only a minority of financial planners offer money management or budgeting advice, citing concerns about the time it takes to offer […]
The reasons Bitcoin is still first in the ranks
After a decade, Bitcoin is still ranked number 1 on the list of cryptocurrencies. No other coin has come close to taking its crown and reaching the level of the Bitcoin price. In fact, in 2018, it seems to be cementing its place at the top rather than slipping. We know that Bitcoin is just a protocol and that protocols can easily be copied and forked to create new cryptocurrencies. Many of those new currencies seem to have a technological advantage over Bitcoin. So what is it about Bitcoin that keeps it at the top? Bitcoin is Still Number 1 Despite everything that has happened, Bitcoin has retained over […]
