How consumers can help clean up the alternative lending market
An influx of alternative lenders and a seemingly unbreakable cycle of bad debt for borrowers have given the short-term loan sector a bad reputation. However, consumers have a role to play in helping clean up the industry. The first step – understanding how lenders should be acting. ASIC requires lenders to conduct ‘reasonable inquiries about a consumer’s financial situation.’ This means inquiries must be made about the consumer’s actual situation and, while alternative lenders are known to be more lenient when it comes to bad credit scores and being on Centrelink, they must still gather enough information about circumstances likely to affect a consumer’s ability to repay their loan. Daniel […]
Ignore bitcoin at your peril, naysayers warned
It’s taken three weeks for bitcoin to erase the losses it suffered when JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon dismissed the digital currency as a fraud.
Australia Post signs on its first businesses with its Digital ID
Online job marketplace Airtasker, credit union CUA, foreign exchange company Travelex, and Queensland Police are among the first adopters of Australia Post’s new digital identity service as it seeks to corner the local market in proving credentials when the online and physical worlds collide. The Digital ID has been under development since early 2016 and will allow people to rapidly verify their identity via their smartphone using stored biometric data and other information. The technology will allow individuals to apply for passports or mortgage by mobile and Australia Post’s executive general manager of trusted e-commerce services Andrew Walduck said it was now entering commercial use and would become a growth […]
Bitcoin cash is essentially printing money
The creation of a second bitcoin asset this week did almost nothing to dilute the price of the original unit, with the value of the new asset instead rocketing skyward, generating almost $US7.5 billion ($9.5 billion) out of thin air. This week, a group of bitcoin activists and developers created a second version of bitcoin, within a few hours, the value of the new unit – bitcoin cash – leapt to over $US600. The original bitcoin price however, remained fairly steady, still trading at about $US2700 a coin, despite an almost 1:1 duplication of itself. “Everyone who has bitcoin now has bitcoin cash and because the market reckons this is […]
FinTech Interviews: Uno Home Loans
In the second of Matthew Parker’s series interviewing FinTech CEOs, he sat down with Vincent Turner, the CEO of Uno Home Loans. Matthew Parker: There have been a few new Mortgage brokering businesses launch over the past 2 years, why is this happening now? What has created the right circumstance for this to occur? Vincent Turner: Good question… One of the drivers is that it’s one of the last transactions left to do digitally. People are now more comfortable applying for financial products online such as credit cards and loans, not just researching and comparing. As people become more comfortable transacting online with their holidays or flights or clothes, they […]
SocietyOne breaks through $300 million of lending
SocietyOne, Australia’s pioneering and leading marketplace lender, has broken through $300 million of total originations since it started operating five years ago with 2017 on track to set further lending records. SocietyOne advanced over $100 million of new lending during the first half of 2017, underlining its position as the clear leader in the Australian consumer marketplace lending sector. Combined lending of $45 million in the first quarter of 2017 and $57 million in the second quarter resulted in year-on-year growth of almost 70% for the six months ending 30 June 2017. That compares to $61 million of new lending advanced in the first half of 2016. SocietyOne’s loan book […]
Fintech startup MoneyMe hits $100 million loans; sets eyes on niche loans market
Fintech startup, MoneyMe Financial Group, has this week broken through the $100 million loan mark, after record daily compounded growth of 2,747 per cent in its medium amount and personal loans offerings drove its lending volume exponentially in the past few months. This rapid acceleration, combined with record low default and customer complaint rates, now sees MoneyMe set to launch a series of niche loan products over 2017, all designed to provide greater financial inclusion for the growing Australian millennial market. “To have reached this exciting milestone so quickly really is validation that the millennial market is actively looking for financial alternatives to the big banks and their […]
Australia to be a cashless society by 2022
Cash is predicted to make up only 2% of all payments within the next five years. If you still pay for your morning coffee with a crisp $5 note, you’re a rare breed and clearly missed the “cash is no longer king” memo. New research shows that the number of cash payments received by Australian merchants has plummeted by 46% between 2010 and 2016 alone and currently makes up less than 10% of all payments. According to the research by market analyst East & Partners, if this trend continues, cash payments across Australian businesses are predicted to fall below 5% by 2019 and below 2% by 2022, creating a virtually […]
