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 […]
BigFuture and Booster Launch Strategic Partnership
BigFuture Pty Limited and Booster Financial Services Limited are pleased to announce their strategic partnership. Booster, a New Zealand based financial services company, will implement BigFuture’s current technology and work with BigFuture to create the next wave of technology for financial advisors. Booster will take up to a 20% equity stake in BigFuture, pay an annual development fee and will have exclusive rights to the BigFuture technology in New Zealand. According to Donald Hellyer, CEO of BigFuture, “Booster is the perfect organisation to partner with BigFuture. The two companies have a common view on where technology is heading for the financial advice and banking industries. Booster provides BigFuture long-term financial […]
Findex launches Family Office in Australia
Findex, Australia’s largest privately owned accountancy and financial advisory firm, today launched Family Office, an entirely new financial offering that gives individuals and businesses a single point of contact to build and maintain their wealth. For the first time, clients of Findex will gain access to their own office of financial and business advisory specialists for their personal and business affairs. Their adviser will act as a single point of contact and provide access an expanded suite of services under the one umbrella. These range from tax, wealth management, risk consulting, lending, insurance, self-managed superannuation, audit and assurance, management consulting to business advisory and more. The offering builds on the […]
Broker platform hits $2bn milestone
An online portal that connects brokers with borrowers has doubled the value of loans negotiated through the platform in only three months. HashChing reached its first $1 billion loan milestone within a year of operation. Now, three months later, it has doubled that figure to over $2 billion worth of home loan applications sent to almost 300 mortgage brokers registered on the platform. “The fact that we’ve hit this next billion-dollar milestone so quickly is testament to the huge demand for our technology,” HashChing chief executive said Mandeep Sodhi said. “Nearly four thousand customers to date have used HashChing to negotiate home loans with interest rates that are well below […]
An overview of digital currencies
By now you may have heard about cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin being used to trade and purchase goods and services, but here’s a fact you may not be aware of. As of 2016 the United Nations recognises 180 different currencies, everything from the Abkhazian Apsar to the US dollar, however does not recognise a single crypto-currency as legal tender. Despite not receiving official recognition as a currency, the various crypto-currencies are being used around the world in order to carry out trade for goods and services. The most popular of crypto-currencies, Bitcoin, has a market cap of over US$10 billion. Currently there are 654 crypto-currencies in circulation, a trend that […]
Fintech platform launches new digital loan push
To digital mortgage service uno, the ideal customer is one who doesn’t want to discuss home loans face-to-face or over the phone. “Traditional brokers are for people who want to go see someone face-to-face or have someone come to their house,” uno founder and chief executive officer Vincent Turner told Australian Broker. “For people who don’t want that, they’re going to find a digital mortgage service like uno as more suitable for their needs.” The firm’s recent marketing push – including an ad in which prospective buyers inspect a house in which some rooms are closed off – highlights the public’s feeling of not receiving all the necessary information on […]
Australians are using P2P loans to consolidate debt
New data from P2P lender RateSetter shows an average loan of $20,666. Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, while having first been introduced in 2012, is still a new concept to many Australians. However, the idea seems to be catching on. The P2P lending space is becoming more competitive, with new lenders being announced all the time, and more Australians are starting to take advantage of the competitive rates on offer. According to new data, these rates are being utilised by borrowers looking to reduce the interest they’re paying on current debts. P2P lender RateSetter has released an update of its loan book data, which contains details of every loan originated since 2014. Previous […]
Fintech start-up Openpay begins $10m pre-IPO raising as it takes on Afterpay
Openpay, a new challenger to soaring ASX-listed fintech start-up Afterpay, has launched a pre-IPO capital raising, seeking $8-10 million ahead of a planned ASX listing next year. The company is run by former BDO national head of retail Simon Scalzo and, like Afterpay, lets people buy and use goods and services now, but pay for them in instalments with no interest. Afterpay is up more than 155 per cent since listing in May, and Openpay also plans to go public in mid-2017 to raise the funds for further growth. Mr Scalzo said it had already attracted interest from a number of investors in its capital raising. “The process to raise […]
