Blockchain is here to stay
Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin, is the talk of the town at the moment. The financial services industry can’t get enough of it. The enthusiasm essentially boils down to the technology’s potential to reduce the financial transaction costs while ensuring robust security. While Bitcoin is unlikely to be make traditional currency extinct, blockchain has provided the impetus needed for new and innovative research into how the slow and often expensive centralised financial transaction systems that dominate banking, so what is this blockchain? Put simply, blockchain is a data structure that can be used to create digital ledgers of transactions shared among a distributed network of participating organisations. Financial institutions […]
Need to Know: Practical Bitcoin basics
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the phrase Bitcoin uttered around tech circles, or maybe even on mainstream news outlets. Maybe you’ve seen Bitcoin as a payment option on stores like Steam and Microsoft’s. But what is Bitcoin, why should you care and is it worth bothering with? As to what Bitcoin is, simply put, it’s way of transferring money around. Some people think it’s a challenge to government reserve banks (probably not) or a whole new system of finance technology akin to the credit card (quite likely), but for us plebs, right now, it’s main utility is cheaply and quickly sending money from A to […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
