YBR makes digital acquisition – brightday
Mortgage and wealth franchise Yellow Brick Road (YBR) has bought online advice platform brightday from News Corp. YBR executive chairman Mark Bouris says the addition of brightday is the latest in a series of acquisitions and announcements to deliver on the company’s digital strategy. “This acquisition is a key part of our direct and online strategy to be launched to consumers in FY2017,” Bouris said. “brightday serves a similar customer segment to Yellow Brick Road. Our 2020 customer strategy ensures we can service customers via the means and channel they prefer: many will prefer face-to-face support which is why we will double our branch network by 2020, white others have […]
Reinventure backs Flare HR to disrupt default super
Westpac Banking Corp’s venture capital fund Reinventure Group has taken a stake in Flare HR, a start-up that has built software that promises to enhance company engagement with employees and disrupt the $9 billion default superannuation market. Reinventure Group has invested more than $1 million in a recent seed fundraising round by Flare, which has spent a year building a cloud-based platform that will launch in May. The Sydney-based company has a dozen full-time staff working in the fintech hub Stone & Chalk and expects to grow to 30 people over the next six months. Flare’s software, which manages the on-boarding of new employees and various human resources functions including […]
How to embrace change and survive digital disruption
Digital disruption is a trend that’s here to stay and no industry is safe. Traditional industries like manufacturing, transport, retail, tourism and hospitality, print media and entertainment may have been hit first, and hit hard, but it’s only a matter of time before others, including the advice industry, feel the heat. The banking and finance industry could lose almost a quarter of its revenue to fintech disrupters by 2021, based on a new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The report, ‘Blurred lines: How Fintech is shaping financial services’, says the disruption of the financial sector is already underway. It’s currently reshaping the nature of consumer banking and payments, and a second wave […]
Payment solution: corporates embrace virtual credit cards
For some time now, the dominant theme in digital payments for retail customers has been: “build it and they will come”. It’s a different story for corporates, where the rate of mobile payments innovation and adoption has been much slower, apart from some key emerging niches including virtual credit cards. A virtual card is exactly what the name implies: instead of the traditional plastic, a random card number is generated by software provided to the corporate customer. The 16-digit number can be accessed through an app on a mobile device, or directly by the company for a business-to-business purchase online. In most cases the number is used only once, it […]
Insurers brace for mega fintech shake up
The insurance industry has largely remained the same in the past 100 years, but the sector is in for its biggest shake up as investors continue to pump billions of dollars into “insurtech”, fuelling sweeping changes through technology. Insurance is the second most disrupted industry today thanks to a growing number of start-ups and technology companies eyeing slices of the insurance pie. Research from PwC found that the global insurance industry ranked second only behind media and entertainment as the industry that is most significantly affected by technological change. And Australia, where the general insurance market is dominated by players such as Suncorp Group, IAG and QBE Insurance Group, is […]
UK experts kick off week of FinTech in Australia
Chris Woolard and Shaul David bring cutting-edge insight and expertise on FinTech regulation and innovation to Australian audiences. Chris Woolard, Director of Strategy and Competition at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and UK Trade and Investment’s FinTech specialist Shaul David are in Australia this week to take part in a range of events to strengthen links with the Australian FinTech community. Both visitors spoke at UK Trade and Investment’s sell-out event on FinTech Innovation and Regulation at Sydney’s FinTech hub, Stone & Chalk, this evening. The event attracted over 150 of Sydney’s brightest in FinTech and focused on navigating the regulatory challenges facing both Australia and the UK. Earlier […]
Mobile payments: A haven for big players
Disruption, that pervasive buzzword in fintech, is usually attributed to startups competing with the big players. These companies are small, agile and new to the market. They bring new technology and ways of doing things, and are quick to adapt. But what happens when it’s these bigger players, such as the traditional banks, that introduce the disruptive technology? PwC recently released its Global Fintech Report, which surveyed various people working in global financial services. The respondents identified fund transfers and payments as the sector second most likely to be disrupted by fintech over the next five years. However, it seems that established companies are responsible for most of […]
AWI buys Eureka Report
Paul Clitheroe’s Australasian Wealth Investments has purchased News Corp Australia’s investor advice newsletter and website Eureka Report. AWI will add the Alan Kohler-founded Eureka Report to its stable which includes InvestSMART and Intelligent Investor. The sale price was not disclosed. “I’ve always admired Eureka Report for its exceptional ability to connect with private investors across Australia; we know the publication will thrive afresh under this new structure”, Mr Clitheroe, who is chairman of AWI, said. Mr Clitheroe, a financial analyst and TV presenter, best known for hosting former Nine Network program Money, says the takeover of Eureka Report is part of his plan to ride the wave of a tech-driven […]
