Here’s why Trump’s win boosted Bitcoin
As Trump’s electoral victory became clear, global markets plunged into volatility. Dow Jones stock futures dropped by 3.8% in premarket trading, S&P futures by 3% overnight, and Nasdaq futures by almost 5%. All major European indices dropped by 2%, on average. The price of bitcoin, however, surged around 4% to reach highs of $738.33 overnight. The cryptocurrency saw similar gains in June after the Brexit vote, suggesting that investors are increasingly turning to bitcoin in times of political and economic uncertainty. There are a number of reasons why bitcoin proves attractive in these circumstances: It’s an alternative asset. Alternative assets are non-traditional assets — other examples include precious metals and […]
The world’s biggest bitcoin wallet provider will have a record month thanks to Trump
The world’s biggest bitcoin wallet provider will “pretty easily” have its biggest ever month for activity in November, following a surge in use after Donald Trump’s shock election victory in the US. Peter Smith, the Co-Founder and CEO of London-based Blockchain, told Business Insider: “We’re setting a new record pretty much every day since the election in terms of activity on the platform. “People are basically hedging against economic instability. It’s a worrying time to be holding a lot of British pound or if you’re America — people flee to safe haven assets. Bitcoin is one of those. Bloomberg added to its list of safe havens last week actually.” The […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
LoanDolphin completes $1.1 million seed funding
LoanDolphin, Australia’s leading loan bidding platform, has successfully raised a total of $1.1 million from key investors to expand its presence in major capital cities in a bid to claim a stake in Australia’s $1.5 trillion home loan market. Strategic investor Barry Lambert provided $1 million, with the remainder from fintech investment firm H2 Ventures. Mr Lambert founded Count Financial in 1980 and sold the company to Commonwealth Bank in 2011 for $373 million. The seed funding values the Sydney-based fintech startup at $5 million post capital raising rounds. LoanDolphin is a free online platform for people to refinance or obtain new home loans at rates […]
EY FinTech Australia Census 2016
FinTech Australia and EY Sweeney release the most comprehensive analysis of Australia’s fintech ecosystem to date, the EY FinTech Australia Census 2016 FinTech Australia and EY Sweeney are today releasing the inaugural EY FinTech Australia Census 2016, the most comprehensive and detailed report on the Australian fintech industry to date. The research was formally launched in Melbourne today by EY’s Anita Kimber at FinTech Australia’s national summit, Collab/Collide 2016 in partnership with LaunchVic. This significant piece of research was commissioned by FinTech Australia as part of their efforts to foster a thriving fintech ecosystem in Australia. The report identifies important characteristics of the Australian fintech industry, and establishes a set […]
International share trading made easy for financial advisers by Macrovue
Macrovue, Australia’s first global thematic brokerage and trading platform, has taken the wraps off a new global share trading solution aimed at easing complexity, time, and costs for Australian financial advisers and their clients. Sid Sahgal, Macrovue CEO said: “We offer the flexibility to create, trade, and rebalance share-based portfolios built from scratch by advisers, choosing from 20,000 securities and ETFs listed on over 18 global exchanges.“ Mr Sahgal noted that a surprising number of advisers are still using manual trading systems (paper and telephones) to buy and sell global stocks. “Our platform features paperless client on-boarding, one integrated trading platform for global and domestic stocks, powerful […]
