MoneyMe gets $30m capital raise
Consumer fintech firm, MoneyMe, has announced a $30 million capital raise from an ultra-high net worth Australian family office, which has branched out into fintech after investing mostly in large scale property on the eastern seaboard. The capital raise includes both debt and equity, and will fund the launch of a series of niche financial products aimed at millennial throughout 2016. MoneyMe chief executive, Clayton Howes, said the millennial market was important for fintech as they were inclined to spend big on lifestyle and convenience, and were willing to pay a premium for it. “Fintechs with the ability to create niche products that are delivered in a tailored way that […]
‘EY Fintech Adoption Index’ – out today
Ernst & Young have now released their ‘EY Fintech Adoption Index’ which outlines how quickly the market is taking up FinTech products. While we are a market leader in the adoption of credit card contactless payment technologies we are slow to take up FinTech products. As our market matures this is sure to change. Exploring a new financial services landscape Driven by innovative startups and major technology players, the booming FinTech industry is capturing traditional market share by offering customers easy-to-use and compelling products and services. We surveyed more than 10,000 digitally active people in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States to better understand […]
Fiserv and Alpha Payments Cloud Partner on Cost Effective Solution to Connect to Real-Time Payments in Australia – Press Release
Alpha Payments Cloud, a global leader in providing third party payment, risk and commerce solution access to international banks and merchants, has today announced a partnership with Fiserv, Inc., a leading global provider of financial services technology solutions. The partnership will provide Australian banks with a simpler and faster way to process payments in Australia while also generating significantly more value through the addition of overlay services through the AlphaHub Payments as a Service platform. The AlphaHub introduces Australian banks to an entirely new middleware layer that provides frictionless access to overlay services instantly, significantly speeding up the introduction of new functionalities. Accessing these new functionalities through the AlphaHub’s considerable […]
Westpac trials Prospa tie-up
It is great to see that the big banks in Australia are starting to support our FinTech companies. Lets hope that the this announcement encourages some of the other banks to get in and trial a partnership with an up and coming technology. Westpac has begun quietly trialling a partnership with online small business lender Prospa, signalling a growing willingness by the big four banks to embrace working with the rapidly emerging “fintech” industry. Source: Westpac trials Prospa tie-up
Macquarie targets robo-advice at mass market
Macquarie Group is targeting retail investors and self-managed super funds with a new robo-advice program that will provide detailed recommendations matched to customers’ investment priorities. The bank will next month launch an online tool allowing customers to buy investment advice covering asset classes including shares, exchange traded funds, and managed funds from around the world. Macquarie Wealth Management chief investment officer John O’Connell said the advice would draw on a database of 30,000 investment options globally. OwnersAdvisory is aimed at selling lower-cost investment advice. After gauging customers’ risk profile through an online questionnaire, Mr O’Connell said the program would produce “a written outline of exactly what we would do if […]
Four steps to make Australia a fintech powerhouse
There are four policy mechanisms every Australian state and federal government should be “majoring in” in order to build a globally competitive fin tech industry, according to the CEO of fintech hub Stone and Chalk, Alex Scandurra. He says Australia has all the basic ingredients, but lacks critical mass and the cultural focus that has built a successful fintech industry in England. 1. Tax incentives “Unlike parts of the United States, we’re very similar to the United Kingdom in the we have a really big base of high net worths in Australia, but tech is foreign to them, and fintech is even more foreign to them,” he says. “They don’t […]
The FinTech future is here
Viewing the below chart of web searches, you could be forgiven for thinking that fintech has only really emerged in the past year. But the financial services sector has been innovating with technology for centuries – so why has it got so big recently? Source: Google The coming together of financial services and technology is nothing new. It will come as no surprise to know institutions have been using technology to improve their middle and back offices for as long as computers have been around. We used to call this banktech. In fact, banktech can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries when traders would use carrier pigeons […]
