Fintech challenges Veda, Dun & Bradstreet
CreditSME – founded by Adam Welsh, a former M&A and debt at Origin Capital Group and Goldman Sachs – is offering a sort of broker role, giving them a credit rating and then advising them on which lenders would be the best for them – be it traditional bank or online unsecured lenders. CreditSME, launching on Wednesday, is the latest in an explosion of ex investment banker-led fintechs targeting the small businesses traditionally treated with disdain by the banks. But it’s not lending them money, rather it wants to give SMEs (and their lenders) easy access to a credit rating, just like a big business. There are various operators that […]
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 […]
Blockchain technology to impact financial services sector
Blockchain technology has the potential to improve client’s end-to-end experience but the legal profession must consider its regulation, according to Norton Rose Fulbright lawyers. Nick Abrahams, APAC head of technology and innovation, told those gathered at Norton Rose Fulbright’s Unlocking the Blockchain event last week that “Blockchain will radically impact the financial services sector”. Mr Abrahams – along with Norton Rose Fulbright consultant Tessa Hoser and senior representatives from ASIC, CBA and the ASX – were part of a panel discussion about blockchain technology and regulation at the event. The session focused on the potential applications of blockchain and distributed ledger technology, and the key legal and regulatory considerations for […]
Apple, ANZ Bank strike deal for Apple Pay in Australia
Apple is expanding its Apple Pay digital wallet in Australia after ANZ became the country’s first bank to support the mobile payment service, executives at the pair told Reuters. Apple Pay allows users to register credit cards on devices such as iPhones, and pay for goods and services by swiping the devices over contactless payment terminals. Apple charges card providers for transactions via the service, which it introduced to Australia last year with American Express. The latest partnership extends the service to ANZ customers and represents the culmination of months of talks with the bank and three bigger peers, all of which had already agreed to support Google’s rival Android […]
Goldfields Money Ltd enters fintech JV to progress digital banking initiative
Goldfields Money Ltd (ASX:GMY), an Authorised Deposit‐taking Institution (ADI), has entered into a JV with a financial technology (fintech) company Mooola Pty Ltd, as part of its transformation into a digital bank. As part of the JV, Sydney-based Mooola will provide technical services and advice to Goldfields to develop a digital software platform for its financial products. In return, Goldfields Money will provide core banking and financial products to the customers of Mooola under Mooola’s own retail brand. This will enable Mooola to launch a new retail banking application later this year targeting customers in the 18-35 age bracket using its fintech expertise. New customers who come to Goldfields Money […]
The fintech phenomenon: Do Aussies only want to borrow from banks?
Marketplace lending, online business loans, robo-advice, blockchain – none of it means anything without consumers. So what do Aussies think of fintech? The threatening, disrupting nature of fintech is a widely discussed topic, with consumer benefits often being the focus. However, what’s interesting is that in the push to get companies, ideas and funding across the line, the actual customer — whether they’re a borrower, investor or seeker of advice — often gets left behind. Robert Allen, director of payments technology and consulting at PwCm spoke about what’s driving fintech at a Fintech Sydney event this week. “Fintech is being pushed forward by a new way of thinking, by millennials, […]
Manning targets super funds for P2P investor
Former JANA asset consultant Joshua Manning will be raiding his contact book of super fund investment chiefs as he does the rounds pitching his new business, Manning Market Place. His vision for the start-up specialist investment fund is to focus exclusively on the burgeoning peer-to-peer lending sector. Peer-to-peer (P2P), otherwise known as marketplace lending, is the buzzword for the plethora of online-based or “fintech” start-ups gnawing at the edges of the big banks’ loan books. After leaving his day job at the asset consulting arm of National Australia Bank late last year, Manning’s first investment is a stake in the darling of the local P2P set, SocietyOne. Other shareholders in […]
Fintech targets trillion dollar profits
Analysis by McKinsey and Co suggests the trillion dollar profits of traditional banks are vulnerable to being leeched by more than 12,000 fintech start ups. The digital innovators, often targeting a single link of the value chain, pose a grave threat to the business model of the old banking houses. Banks have long made their money by bundling a number of businesses together and relying on the stickiness of life-long customer relationships to rake in super profits on high margin products and services such as investment management, foreign exchange and credit cards. Challengers like Paypal, Nerdwallet and Wealthfront have targeted the profit centres while ignoring the low returns on basic […]
