Payments

May
12

SocietyOne shifts from edgy start-up to $100m lender

The nation’s biggest peer-to-peer lender, SocietyOne, is growing up fast, and not in the same way as its renegade US cousin Lending Club. An ASIC search has revealed the stranglehold of the so-called media consortium (News Corp, Kerry Stokes and James Packer’s media-free Consolidated Press Holdings) over SocOne after the recent $25 million Series C capital raising. The consortium, through its vehicle S. One Holding, holds a commanding 37 per cent stake, with the News and Stokes interests believed to be dominant in the S. One Holding structure. Not only that, but Westpac’s in-house venture capital fund, Reinventure, speaks for a further 17 per cent of SocOne. Put the two […]

DETAIL
May
11

Birch gets your credit card rewards in order

Credit card reward programs can be confusing, and each can be totally different from the next. So managing all your points and rewards can quickly become a headache. Enter Birch, a service that helps users manage their rewards programs and points across multiple credit cards and accounts. Birch plugs into a bank account, looks at a user’s spending habits and recommends what kinds of cards they should sign up for, or how they should spend their money in order to maximize their point returns. For example, Birch might recommend that a user buys products with a specific card at a store like Macy’s in order to get the most points. […]

DETAIL
May
05

Budget 2016: fintechs; MoneyPlace, OzForex hail recognition

The Turnbull government’s maiden budget may have lacked the necessary fireworks for the local innovation sector but fintech start-ups are not complaining. Melbourne-based peer-to-peer lender MoneyPlace’s founder and CEO Stuart Stoyan is pleased to see the Australian fintech ecosystem singled out in a budget that didn’t dole out many handouts to start-ups. “It’s an election budget so they had to balance a few things but the fact that fintech got attention is a big win,” he said. The government overnight unveiled measures designed to boost the fintech industry that Mr Stoyan said is a reflection of the sector’s growing prominence. “What we have is a number of factors coming together […]

DETAIL

Afterpay fintech float closes up 25pc

The Ron Brierley-backed buy now, pay later fintech Afterpay got a positive response to its $125 million listing on Wednesday, closing up 25 per cent. The company – which received $8 million in private investments before the float from several former members of Mr Brierley’s Guiness Peat Group – listed at midday at $1 and ended the day at $1.25. The All Ordinaries closed down 1.47 per cent. The executive chairman and co-founder is Anthony Eisen, former chief investment officer of Guiness Peat Group. “What we’re pioneering in Australia is buy now, pay later online, in real time,” said Mr Eisen. “We have a transaction integrity engine that allows us […]

DETAIL
May
04

Meet eight fintechs changing financial services

When you have just seven minutes to sell your idea as the next big thing to change banking and investment, every moment counts. Thirty of the country’s best fintechs are pitching to a room full of 160-plus bankers, brokers and venture capitalists at the Grand Hyatt ballroom in Melbourne, where their story, business plan and even looks are all being judged. From payments to wealth management, peer-to-peer lending and crowd funding, fintech start-ups are taking aim at the heart of the financial services industry and a pot of revenues that Goldman Sachs estimates at $4.7 trillion. The banks are all vying for a stake in these disrupters before they join […]

DETAIL
May
04

Artificial Intelligence, Algo-Banking, Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies and Robo-Advice Form Growth of Australian FinTech Market

Fintech is a disrupting force and a decentralising movement in the financial services sector. Fintech’s apply information technologies and modern internet protocols for data exchange, and deliver financial services using data storage, data analysis algorithms, or personal telecommunication devices. Digital ecosystems are fundamental to the success of both Fintech and traditional banks. Frost & Sullivan’s study, Fintech in Australia – Trends, Forecasts and Analysis 2015 – 2020 defines and focuses on the growth and challenges of the Australian Fintech sectors’ three market segments; Digital Payments, Personal and Business Finance, and Financial Infrastructure and Data Analysis. Each segment relies on its own set of digital technologies. Digital Payments Digital Payments are […]

DETAIL
May
03

zipMoney records $10million in the month of April

zipMoney Limited (ASX:ZML) announced on the ASX that it originated more than $10 million in transaction volume on its platform in the month of April alone. An outstanding result from the entire team driven by the continued activation of large merchant accounts, the rollout of zipPay and a number of strategic marketing initiatives. You can read more here On 29 April 2016 zipMoney released its Quarterly Activities Report for the period ending 31 March 2016. Noteworthy highlights included: Revenue growth of 104% on last quarter including merchant fee revenue growth of 128% Transaction volume growth of 67% on last quarter; more than $23 million originated on platform to date Loan book ended the period […]

DETAIL
May
03

Identifying customers in the digital era

Digital identity poses an array of challenges for the consumer and the merchant. The push to perform Know Your Customer (KYC) checks online (or 100 point check as it’s known in Australia) has dramatically increased, with AML/CTF obligated merchants seeking to acquire customers remotely, and in most cases seeking to release the tether to bricks and mortar entirely.   Austrac defines KYC under the AML/CTF legislation as “documentation which sets out a business’s approach to ensure that it can effectively identify, verify and monitor its customers and the financial transactions in which they engage, relative to the risks of money laundering and terrorism financing”1. Austrac also allows electronic verification, where […]

DETAIL