Financial Leaders share their strategies to maintain their edge in the new era of Lending
Next Generation Lending 2016 16-18 August | Radisson Blu Hotel Sydney Australia is experiencing phenomenal growth in FinTech, with its alternative finance market growing by 320 per cent in 2015. With the industry’s wealth of talent and investment, it has successfully engaged the government and the regulator, ASIC to actively work together to promote innovation and digital disruption in financial services. So how is this evolving financial ‘revolution’ changing the traditional lending business model, who has the competitive edge and how is the industry benefitting as a whole? The 2nd annual Next Generation Lending conference, taking place in Sydney this August, will provide an in-depth look at how new […]
Fintech needs security baked in from the start
Fintech has been labelled a modern day gold rush fuelled by ambitious entrepreneurs and innovative technologies and consumer demand. KPMG and CB Insights’ “The Pulse of Fintech”report found that global investment in fintech currently sits at $13.8 billion with $4.5bn invested in the Asia-Pacific, across 140 deals. But as the relationship between new technologies, such as bitcoin and blockchain, and financial services deepens, so do the threats posed by increasingly sophisticated hackers. No market is more affected by cybercrime than financial services. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ 2016 Global Economic Crime Survey found that 48 per cent of financial sector respondents reported to have been affected by cybercrime, compared with 36 per cent across […]
VentureCrowd stakes its claim as alternative investment option
Local equity-based crowd-funding platform VentureCrowd and residential property developer Clearstate have closed a second funding round, giving more than 50 investors 49 per cent equity of a development site in western Sydney. VentureCrowd’s crowd-funding platform allows investors to buy equity of a property development before it’s subdivided and sold, and former Credit Suisse adviser Mitchell Hopwood said he invested through his self-managed superannuation portfolio as an alternative to a listed property fund. “The Austral opportunity provided a relatively high, short-term return in a bite-size, easily understandable transaction that is fairly de-risked from an investment perspective,” he said. Mr Hopwood said the crowd-funding platform, believed to be the first of its […]
Westpac puts another $50 million into Reinventure
Westpac Banking Corp has doubled its exposure to venture capital, investing a further $50 million into a second fund to be managed by Reinventure Group to invest in fintech start-ups including those which could potentially disrupt the bank. The closure of Reinventure’s $50 million Fund 2 reflects Westpac’s belief that technology is reshaping financial markets and that the bank should hold equity stakes in a selection of potential disrupters as a defence mechanism to potential disintermediation. It also shows how Westpac wants to improve the experiences of its customers by developing relationships with start-ups. The second fund will be managed by Simon Cant and Danny Gilligan, the co-founders of Reinventure […]
Brokers in ‘unique position’ to benefit from fintech: CEOs
The heads of an Australian lending business and an industry association believe forward-thinking mortgage brokers are poised to benefit from the growing fintech trend. Marketplace lender FundX says the symbiotic nature of the broker/fintech relationship will serve both channels well, provided brokers are open-minded about new technology. FundX founder and CEO David Jackson believes the additional value brokers can offer clients via fintech products and services, combined with the reliance many fintechs have on brokers as an important avenue for growth via referrals, means those who leverage this relationship instead of resisting it may be poised to benefit most from the fintech revolution. “At its core, finance broking is based […]
Fintech B2B small business lending marketplace Bigstone raises $3 million
Fintech start-up Bigstone has raised $3 million from a range of investors, including ASX-listed diversified investments and venture capital firm CVC, to grow its small business lending marketplace and offer an alternative to the big banks. The seed funding round is the first capital raised by the start-up, which connects small businesses wanting to borrow up to $250,000 with non-bank lenders. Other major investors in the round were the founders of Bangkok-based fund Lighthouse Venture Partners Paniti Junhasavasdikul and Narith Phadungchai, in addition to private investors. Bigstone co-founder and chief executive Boyd Pederson said the capital would be used to fuel expansion, grow its marketing team and to continue developing […]
Adelaide Fintech solution disrupts Invoicing
Adoption of cloud software has gained acceptance and is increasing dramatically. Over 600,000 Australian businesses currently use cloud accounting solutions. And yet, when they send an invoice they need to print and post it, or PDF and email it. This is because cloud accounting systems do not talk directly to other cloud accounting systems. An Adelaide Fintech company has worked to address this problem with a solution called Link4. Link4 delivers your invoice instantly to your customer. It creates a secure Link that allows cloud accounting systems to be connected. This includes popular systems like Xero, MYOB, Quickbooks, Reckon, Saasu and SageOne. No matter which cloud software a supplier uses, […]
FINCAST has secured a pilot programme with OCBC
Australian headquartered Fintech start-up, FINCAST, has secured a pilot programme with Singaporean headquartered Asian bank OCBC as its first deal. Managing Director and Co-Founder, Andrew Connors, commented, “the appetite for and commitment to innovation by Asian banks means the Australian big four banks are being left behind. Major Asian banks like OCBC aren’t just kicking the tyres on new technologies that will advance their business, they are firmly focussed on having a first-mover advantage by utilising technology”. “We are still hopeful that early adopters of our technology will include an Australian bank or corporate partner of our home, the Stone & Chalk Fintech hub”. The pilot between FINCAST […]
