Blockchain gains traction in fintech as payment networks emerge
J.P. Morgan has created what is arguably one of the largest blockchain payments networks to date. The financial services company announced that the Royal Bank of Canada and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. are the first two banks to join the blockchain network, “representing significant cross-border payment volumes.” J.P. Morgan created the Interbank Information Network (IIN), which it said will significantly reduce the number of participants needed to respond to compliance and other data-related inquiries that delay payments. “IIN will enhance the client experience, decreasing the amount of time – from weeks to hours – and costs associated with resolving payment delays,” said Emma Loftus, Head of Global […]
Banks want to charge for handing over customer data
Major banks want to charge fintech businesses in exchange for handing over data on the banks’ customers, a sign of the likely tensions to emerge as the government looks to break open the banks’ information vaults. In a move that could have far-reaching implications for banks and their customers alike, Treasurer Scott Morrison earlier this year ordered an investigation into “open banking”, a system that would allow customers to securely share their financial data with rivals. While the banks are supportive of the general move, submissions to a Treasury have highlighted the cost of making more transaction data available, with suggestions banks could face costs in the hundreds of millions […]
Sexiest Job of the 21st Century: Data Scientist
Data miner? Web analyst? Information wrangler? Harvard Business Review[1] labelled it the “sexiest job of the 21st Century” and the opportunities are exploding and salaries rocketing for astute professionals choosing “data science” as their career. As industries and governments worldwide race into the era of Big Data, James Cook University (JCU) is giving its students a head start with a fast, fully online and keenly priced Master of Data Science that offers students a potentially rapid return on their investment. Graduates will enjoy up-to-the-minute skills in the scientific methods, systems and processes used to unlock the secrets hidden in data. This ability to deliver insights and solutions by analysing data will give graduates an edge […]
The future will be fuelled by data
The digital disruption rippling through business and government today is merely a curtain raiser for what comes next. The combination of artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain technologies and quantum computing will usher in new operating models, new industries, new possibilities. The future will be fuelled by data and technologies that harvest, protect, analyse and take action based on that information. Professor Mary-Anne Williams, director of the innovation and enterprise research lab at the University of Technology, Sydney, believes that cognitive computing is already a game-changer. “Cognitive computing is able to convert vast volumes of complex data into decision-making models that can be used take action autonomously without human oversight or intervention. […]
Wealth begins its blockchain reaction
Ambitious financial services firms are driving Australia’s global leadership in the development of blockchain technology, which is already delivering productivity and innovation benefits to the nation’s trillion-dollar wealth industry. BNP Paribas Securities Services has progressively stepped up its blockchain expertise in the Australian market because it sees a nation filled with opportunities. BNP Paribas global head of securities services, Patrick Colle, says Australia has been a business investment stronghold because in many areas it is “the most advanced in the world.” Colle says an important attribute making Australia one of the most sophisticated global markets on blockchain is the initiative of the ASX to replace its dated CHESS clearing and […]
Disruptive big data company Quantexa furthers global expansion
Quantexa, the disruptive big data and analytics company backed by HSBC and Albion Ventures, has furthered its international expansion by opening a new office in Sydney, Australia. This builds upon their accelerated growth this year, which has seen the opening of their Brussels office in April and the doubling in size of their Global Headquarters in London. Following on from their $3.3m fund raising earlier this year, Quantexa’s expansion reflects a growing customer base outside the UK. The Sydney office will put the company in closer proximity to its clients in APAC and forms part of its aggressive international growth plans. Quantexa can already boast an impressive client list that […]
Data61 reports blockchain will have a profound impact on the economy
A scientific study of blockchain by the CSIRO’s specialist Data61 unit has found the management of supply chains, including trade finance and insurance, as a “highly promising” use case for the emerging technology, which will enhance productivity across the agriculture, banking, healthcare, logistics and public sectors and help business and government manage the deluge of data about to be unleashed by the internet of things. But two reports to be released on Wednesday also point to various limitations of the much-hyped technology, warning it could compromise privacy, breach confidentiality, and create security concerns should encryption ever be broken by faster computing power. Data61’s reports are the product of almost a […]
Banks and fintechs want robust data-sharing standards
Both big banks and fintech start-ups want robust governance standards created to ensure customers can move data from one financial services provider to another without exposing the sector to cyber attacks. Banks are preparing for new legislation that will give their customers the right to request transaction data be given to a potential competitor under a new data access regime the Productivity Commission said this week could “reinvigorate competition policy”. The Productivity Commission’s final report on data use and availability, published on Monday, set out aggressive timelines for the creation of a “comprehensive right” in a new law designed to empower individuals and businesses throughout the economy to make better […]
