The growing popularity of peer-to-peer lending
Years ago, the financial services offered to people who wanted to profit from their savings was very cut and dry. You would either invest your money in the stock exchange, property, or in a term deposit account, to gain interest on your principal investment. Now, investors have the opportunity to expand their portfolio and commit their funds to newer, and arguably more exciting, investment options. Peer-to-peer lending (P2P) This disruption to traditional financial services is due to the growing popularity of peer-to-peer lending (P2P) in the market. This lending process is a method of debt financing that allows individuals to borrow and lend money without the use of an official […]
Just don’t call us payday lenders
More than 20,000 Australian small business owners have trouble accessing finance (Deloitte Access Economics). Are they denied access because they aren’t good candidates for loans? Yes, in some cases. However, a significant number (37%) of these businesses are denied finance because they don’t have collateral (be it a home or considerable assets) to secure a loan against. Interestingly more than 40 per cent of rejected applications examined by the NSW Business Chamber were for amounts less than $100,000 – it seems traditional providers aren’t interested in small loans, or small business. Archaic systems and processes which serve the interests of incumbent big business are being dismantled in the current global […]
P2P lifts in popularity amid miserable year for banks
With deposit rates at low levels and the local share market still choppy, peer-to-peer lending has become an interesting alternative for Australian investors over the last few years. But some cracks in the model appeared in the US recently when one of the biggest peer-to-peer platforms was caught up in a scandal that it is now scrambling to fix, offering a warning for the Australian industry about the importance of transparency. LendingClub had been seen as one of the leading lights of this space in the US, amid a range of players that use technology to match investors with borrowers, cutting out the overheads incurred by banks and aiming to […]
Moula ramps up for long-term growth
Australia’s leading data-driven lending platform for small businesses Moula, today announced the appointment of former Managing Director of Xero, Chris Ridd, to its board as it positions itself for significant growth. The announcement coincides with the release of findings from the Disruption Index, showing that the number of data-approved loan applicants has doubled over the past year. The Disruption Index is a Moula initiative designed to track the waves of disruption in Australia in the small business lending sector. Ridd’s appointment comes off the back of strong growth for Moula over the past twelve months, as Australian small businesses change the way they access loans. Business confidence among SMEs seeking […]
Robo-advice and mobile alerts are the future of banking
New app aimed at reducing trader errors, while Westpac banks on bots. Banks and financial institutions are ramping up competitiveness and improving their mobile offerings in an effort to maintain and assist customers, traders and employees. A new report by US market research company Forrester says banks will increasingly use banking apps to provide money management tips to consumers, the SMH reported. This sentiment has been realised in Australia. A team of behavioural finance and math experts launched the first ever robotic trading coach, PsyQuation. The robo coach provides a feedback loop alert system that points out costly trading mistakes. How traders interact with the alert and the ways in […]
Brexit: Bitcoin surges in wake of Out vote
One of the few winners from Britain’s shock decision to exit the European Union on Friday was the virtual currency bitcoin, which rose more than 7 per cent as investors flocked to what they perceived a safe haven asset. Bitcoin jumped above $US670 after the vote, according to data from CoinDesk, prompting analysts to label it “digital gold” – a reference to gold’s historic status as a haven from financial turmoil. Over the past month, the virtual currency has been buffeted by changing sentiment around the vote, rising more than 70 per cent as the Brexit camp gained momentum before being sold off in recent days when it appeared Britons […]
Identifying customers in the digital era
Digital identity poses an array of challenges for the consumer and the merchant. The push to perform Know Your Customer (KYC) checks online (or 100 point check as it’s known in Australia) has dramatically increased, with AML/CTF obligated merchants seeking to acquire customers remotely, and in most cases seeking to release the tether to bricks and mortar entirely. Austrac defines KYC under the AML/CTF legislation as “documentation which sets out a business’s approach to ensure that it can effectively identify, verify and monitor its customers and the financial transactions in which they engage, relative to the risks of money laundering and terrorism financing”1. Austrac also allows electronic verification, where […]
US giant buys Canberra online transaction business eWAY for $US50m
Canberra multimillionaire Matt Bullock has sold his online transaction company for more than a thousand times the money in his bank when he started it. When the Pearce man developed eWAY 18 years ago, he had $50,000 to his name. On Friday, he sold it to American payment technology services giant Global Payments for $US50 million. Understandably, Mr Bullock feels a great sense of achievement from his brainchild that grew to doing 5.8 billion online purchases last year, or about a quarter of all internet transactions in Australia. “What this shows is that you can do anything in Canberra,” he said. “It is a beautiful place and there are a […]
