Ignition Wealth Survey gathers data on financial professionals true fintech needs
Ignition Wealth Head of Sales and Marketing, Richard Liverpool has initiated a series of Ignition Wealth Surveys, seeking to delve deeper into the financial technology needs of Australian financial professionals. “The key to our successful business development is understanding exactly why our B2B customers are passionate about digital financial advice, the benefits for them and the benefits for their clients.”. Richard Liverpool, Head of Sales and Marketing, Ignition Wealth. Ignition Wealth has partnered with Bali’s newest luxury resort, the Movenpick Resort and Spa Jimbaran. Completing the survey gives participants the opportunity to win a four night stay in a luxurious Movenpick Resort and Spa Jimbaran Junior Suite, daily breakfast, […]
DASH integrates with Living Room of Satoshi bill pay service
Dash, the “better bitcoin,” has been integrated into one of Australia’s most promising cryptocurrency companies, Living Room of Satoshi, a business that has already revolutionized the way people pay their bills online. Founded only two years ago, Living Room of Satoshi was named 2015 Australian Startup of the Year award by StartupSmart for the innovative way the company allows Australians to pay their everyday bills with cryptocurrency, including rent, utilities, insurance bills, phone bills, speeding fines, credit card debt, and government tax bills. The service is linked to BPAY, an online bill payment mechanism accepted by over 45,000 companies across Australia. Today, Dash joined Bitcoin as the only alternative currency […]
Fintech launches robo-planner for SMSFs
Australian fintech start-up, A.S.A.P, is launching a digital advisory platform for SMSFs in response to the removal of the accountants’ exemption from the financial services licensing regime. A.S.A.P chief executive, Jim Hennington, said that the eponymous platform had been developed to fit the changing needs of SMSF clients and accountants. “We… have found a way to use technology as the elegant solution to disruptive changes in the law,” he said. “It helps SMSF trustees and their accountants, while supporting an important public policy objective.” Hennington said plenty of SMSF accountants had yet to decide whether to refer client questions to licensed advisers in the period from 1 July, or whether […]
This Australian fintech startup uses new identification technology and wants to bust open the small business loan market
An Australian fintech startup is going all-in with a unique algorithm that it says will revolutionise the business lending market. Sail Funding’s big data application analysis, with inputs from third-party databases and applicant-provided information, allows the startup to make customers a loan offer that is tuned to the applicant’s risk profile. This means less chance of rejections and less chance of sub-optimal borrowing terms. “Being rejected for a loan can be catastrophic but having to put up your home or car as collateral also causes significant personal challenges,” said Sail founder and chief executive Yanir Yakutiel, who will launch the venture in Sydney on Tuesday. “By using our proprietary algorithm […]
Fintech start-ups must ‘unblock the chains that bind them’
Australia’s fintech start-ups will need to weather the blockchain “hype cycle” if they’re to survive, a panel at Melbourne’s Collab/Collide fintech summit determined. Emma Weston, chief executive of disruptive agriculture start-up Full Profile, which uses blockchain technology to eliminate risk and inefficiencies in the agricultural supply chain, said commercial use of the technology was still at a nascent level. “We’re finding lots of potential for blockchain, but what’s going to get us into the world, it’s got to be companies that are prepared to put resources behind something that is fairly uncertain, in a market that is fairly uncertain, in a world where a lot of the incumbents don’t want […]
Banks team up with their FinTech competitors
These are challenging times for the incumbent heavyweights of the financial services sector. Beset by regulatory, governance, technological, capital, and investment issues, they are increasingly facing competition for business from a whole host of new players, primarily from ‘FinTechs’. Growth of marketplace lending In the case of online lenders, this trend began in the UK in the mid-2000s when Zopa, the world’s first digital and now Europe’s largest peer-to-peer (now called marketplace) provider, launched, quickly followed by the likes of Prosper, Lending Club, and OnDeck in the US. Eleven years on, Zopa has lent around 1.8 billion pounds to more than 150,000 borrowers funded by 63,000 investors of whom 53,000 […]
Xero announces HY17 results, Australian subscribers grow 45%
Xero Limited (NZX: XRO; ASX: XRO) today reported its half-yearly earnings to September 30, 2016, executing strongly on diversified global growth while making progress towards EBITDA break-even. Achieving milestones of annualised committed monthly revenue of $303.2 million and operating revenue of $137.2 million, a 48% year-on-year increase, Xero’s paying subscriber base reached 862,000, and reached a total lifetime value of $1.7 billion. Revenue growth rates, while strong, were adversely impacted by the strengthened New Zealand dollar. Xero remains focused on driving diversified global growth and executing on its business strategy, including building towards a high-margin business. “Our focus is to build a sustainable global business with high margins, while managing […]
Automated advice aims to fill the void
Automated financial advice isn’t getting the recognition it deserves in Australia as we steam towards the Robo 2.0 era, says Clover chief executive Harry Chemay. Speaking to The Australian ahead of today’s FinTech Collab/Collide Summit in Melbourne, Mr Chemay said robo-advice — online wealth management advice based on automated algorithms — was ultimately complementary to human financial advice and still largely a misunderstood technology. “Blockchain at the moment is taking the lion’s share of coverage and attention, but there are lots of developments in the robo advice space and it continues to be an evolving area that will provide value for Australians as we move to Robo 2.0.” He defines […]
