FinTech

May
17

Birch Finance presents at TechCrunch Disrupt 2016 in New York

MEDIA RELEASE: Sydney based fintech startup Birch Finance, has been inundated with traffic off the back of their TechCrunch disrupt launch in New York last week. Alexander Cohen and Alexander Whiteside of Birch Finance were selected from hundreds of startups to pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York, in the startup battlefield on Wednesday the 11th of May.   Last week, Birch Finance, a startup in the current cohort of the H2 Ventures fintech accelerator, competed at TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield. The Battlefield included 22 leading early stage startups pitching to top judges in front of a live audience.   Birch are following in the footsteps of successful companies like Betterment, […]

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May
17

IPOs getting bigger, but small caps still outperform, OnMarket BookBuilds says

Initial public offerings on the ASX are getting bigger and small cap floats and private equity exits are the best performers, according to data compiled by OnMarket BookBuilds. The fintech company’s managing director Tim Eisenhauer said the past five years have seen a changing of the guard, as the end of the resources boom resulted in the number of mining company floats falling, while more technology companies sought to grow their fledgling businesses through listings. OnMarket BookBuilds’ research takes in the first quarter of 2016, but the trend is already evident in the second quarter, where high-profile listings, including WiseTech Global, Afterpay and Monday’s Redbubble float, are all well over […]

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May
17

DirectMoney unable to fully fund loan demand

Australia’s only listed P2P lender, DirectMoney, says it is unable to fully fund its loans and is asking borrowers if it can refer them to another lender. Chairman Stephen Porges said it is still looking for institutional funders beyond the one it has – Macquarie Bank – to fund the loan demand it has.Until it gets more institutional money he said it does not have enough cash to lend to all the borrowers applying for loans via its website. “The company remains intensely focused on progressing loan sales to institutions and development of a funding warehouse. At the same time we are rolling out a strong marketing program for [its […]

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May
16

Rubik to Partner with MyState on Digital Banking Transformation

MEDIA RELEASE: Rubik Financial Limited (ASX: RFL), a leading technology company delivering innovative banking, wealth and lending solutions to the financial services industry, has been selected by MyState Limited (ASX: MYS), a diversified financial services group, to partner on the transformation of their digital channels and customer experience offering. Rubik’s technology solution, which will go live in August, will enable MyState to offer their customers a superior digital experience, including access to MyState’s products and services from the device of their choice (desktop, smartphone or tablet) via the operating system of their choice (iOS, Android, Windows), and at the time of their choice. Iain Dunstan, Chief Executive Officer of Rubik, […]

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May
16

R3 to raise up to $US200m from 42 global banks for blockchain trials

R3 CEV, the consortium of 42 global banks – including some of Australia’s biggest institutions – that is investigating how to employ blockchain technology in financial services, is planning an equity capital raising of up to $US200 million this year. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp and Macquarie are members of the R3 consortium that formed last year, so will be considering over the coming months the extent of their participation in the deal. Banks are investigating how to use blockchains, which could cut billions of dollars of costs from their organisations but also be disruptive given banks’ roles as trusted intermediaries and the fact that […]

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May
13

Super funds well-positioned on robo-advice

Thirty-six per cent of people would prefer to get robo-advice and similar services from their superannuation funds, rather than the major banks, according to new research released today. The research, contained in the Investment Trends Direct Client Report has pointed to the high number of Australians choosing to make and activate financial decisions without the help of a financial adviser. However the report points to robo-advice as being a key tool in helping deliver necessary assistance to consumers, and to the positioning of superannuation funds in delivering the answers. In what represents a new area of research for Investment Trends, the company has looked at the appetite of Australian adults […]

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May
13

Outcomes from the National Fintech Cybersecurity Summit

Last week an assembly of Australia’s who’s who of cyber security came together for a roundtable in Sydney. The event was organised by CSIRO’s Data61 and Stone & Chalk with partners KPMG and the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC). This roundtable, was chaired by Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel, and the discussion well moderated by Tony Jones from the ABC. In an interview with Computerworld Australia, Alex Scandurra, CEO of Stone & Chalk, shared his reflections on the event and its outcomes. A key theme that emerged time and again in the inaugural National Fintech Cybersecurity Summit was the criticality of collaboration – a point echoed by both key […]

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May
13

Fintech specialists say ‘NextGen banking’ may replace Big Four

Banks of the future will be technology companies with a banking licence, and traditional finance options may give way to more digitally advanced methods and platforms, say fintech specialists. According to panellists speaking at the Fintech CEOs on the Future of Finance seminar in Sydney on Wednesday night, financial technology firms will soon attract market share and talent away from current banking incumbents, while new digital roles set to replace traditional finance jobs. Speaking at the event Jost Stollmann, CEO of Tyro Payments, predicted that ‘next generation banking’ would eventually take over, with at least one of the big four banks to disappear completely in the next few decades. “Can […]

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