Industry Updates June 4, 2020

June 4, 2020 Rehan D'Almeida Newsletter

We hope that everyone has been well over the past couple of weeks. On the policy front, we are continuing to strongly advocate for the fintech ecosystem with respect to the budget to support you all on your recovery post-Covid-19. We have made our submission to the Inquiry into the Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right, and are currently drafting our submission to the ASIC ePayments Review (details below).

Industry Updates

Last week was particularly exciting, with the new Regulatory Sandbox legislation receiving royal assent. We also successfully lobbied for the removal of the directive that the AOFM must only distribute the SFSF 15 Billion Fund to companies that have 50M assets/loans under management. This change will allow more lenders to access the scheme.

New memberships and community initiatives

Before we launch into our community initiatives, we would like to welcome Scantek, Yodlee and Identitii as our newest members!

Since our last newsletter we have run two weeks of Five Fintechs on Fridays (with incredible enthusiasm from the community). These entries have featured BTC Markets, Data Republic, Assembly Payments, Tanggram, Ingenico, TradeLedger, OpenSparkz, Radium Capital, Pinch and Relay Pay. Stay tuned for this Friday’s latest FFoF.

In last week’s Member Spotlight we spoke with Caroline Bowler, CEO of BTC Markets about the opportunities that the current market presents for cryptocurrency adoption and, in particular, Central Bank Digital Currencies. This week we spoke with InDebted’s Lachlan Heussler about what the company is doing in the debt collection space, their unique use of technology, and their future plans.

Thank you for your support

As always, the team at FinTech Australia wants to extend our support to those of you that are affected due to Covid-19 and remind anyone to reach out to us and the community at large if you need anything at all. The Fintech ecosystem is one that is known for its resilience and community spirit, and compassion and collaboration are key if we want to get through this.

If you need to chat or want to discuss anything, please feel free to send me an email.

Rebecca Schot-Guppy,

General Manager
FinTech Australia

Consultation now open – Issues Paper for the Inquiry into Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right

The Inquiry into Future Directions for the Consumer Data Right is looking at how the Consumer Data Right could be enhanced and leveraged to boost innovation and competition, and support the development of a safe and efficient digital economy, benefiting Australians and Australia. This includes examining how the Consumer Data Right could be expanded to include ‘write’ access.

Thank you to all the members that supported and endorsed us in drafting this submission. The final submission has been submitted to the Inquiry.

If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.

ASIC ePayments Review

On 24 March 2020, ASIC published further progress on their ePayments Review, which laid out ASIC’s initial positions regarding small business protections, addressing scams, the unauthorised transactions and passcode security requirements framework and compliance monitoring and data collection.

ASIC is seeking submissions on these positions, with an intention (subject to COVID-19) to release the second consultation paper in the second half of 2020. ASIC have not provided a date that responses are due, and seem to have some flexibility with regards to this due to COVID-19.

Q2 Cloud Lending and GetCapital have teamed up to accelerate loans to SMEs affected by Covid-19.
Azupay uses single-use PayID with QR Code in NPP’s first real-time C2B payments solution.
In last week’s Member Spotlight, we spoke to Caroline Bowler, CEO of BTC Markets about Cryptocurrency and CBDCs in Australia.
This week in the FinTech Australia Podcast, Dexter is joined by:
- Simone Joyce, CEO and Founder of paypaplane.com
- Eduard Fabian, CTO of RAZER Fintech
- Tim Dwyer and Dan Peters of Limepay.com.au
- Camilla Bullock, Emerging Payments Association Asia
- Sam Zheng, CEO curiousthing.io/
- Paul Weingarth, Slyp.com.au
- David Hyman, Lendi.com.au

The new Regulatory Sandbox legislation has received royal assent and will be available from 1 September 2020.
The NSW Treasury is conducting a survey to understand the impact of COVID-19 for businesses across NSW
Commonwealth Bank will host a hackathon in July, with a prize of $150,000 for the winner.
Checkout.com has merged with Perth-based Pin Payments.

Instant Identity Verification

Fintech for the Future

Helping information move with money

FinTech Australia Talent Marketplace

We have partnered with Tier One People to launch a talent marketplace on Linkedin. The group is specifically for Fintech talent who are currently out of work and immediately available.

FinTech Australia Jobs Board

Whether you are a member of FinTech Australia and are looking to hire, or someone seeking new opportunities you can take advantage of our industry-specific fintech job board.

Post your ad here.

MoneyNext Summit Online

MoneyNext Summit Online is the leading virtual event to address the current financial landscape and offer insight and opinion into the future of money.

180 visionary speakers and 5,000 finance and technology decision makers debate the latest industry trends and future innovations alongside tech giants and the latest startups.

Reserve your free place now for access to over 30 hours of exceptional content across 4 days.

IT’S FREE

Date: 18 – 21 August 2020

Insurtech Australia introduces BetterLabs Venture

InsurtechAustralia is hosting the BetterLabs Ventures team for an online event who are looking to work with startups ready to launch as well as Series A and Series B businesses hungry to scale fast. This may be a great opportunity for a fintech looking to raise capital.

IT’S FREE

Date: Wednesday, 3 June 2020.
Time: 2pm AEST

2020 Fintech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific

Are you aspiring to be the next FinTech Unicorn? Looking to collaborate with some of the best minds in the financial sector? If yes, Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is the perfect programme for you! The programme, now in its 7^th year, is open for applications between now and July 10^th.

This year, the Lab is seeking companies in five major areas: Data & Analytics; Digital Banking; Health Insurance Ecosystem; Intelligent Automation and Emerging Technologies. More details here.

Interested? Apply now to the 2020 Accenture FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific and start accelerating your fintech journey today.

The Finnie Awards

We understand everyone in the industry is experiencing great uncertainty at this time. The Finnies have always represented the resilience of fintechs, promoted the achievements of the industry, driven awareness and encouraged further innovation. We understand that these are uncertain and challenging times; as such we have made the hard but necessary decision to postpone the awards to a date later in the year to Friday, 27 November.

Applications close on Sunday, 16 August 2020.

Fintech Hub Webinar Series – Acquiring an AFSL/ACL

Sophie Grace Compliance and Legal is collaborating with FinTech Australia to provide its members with regulatory information and support. As the fintech industry continues to expand, so too does the regulatory focus on businesses within this domain. This webinar series is designed to help you navigate the Australian regulatory system and assist you to understand the environment so you can successfully start and continue to operate your fintech business as efficiently as possible.

The seminars aim to answer some of the most common questions businesses have when they are exploring establishment and expansion of fintech products and services. A presentation by one of the experienced staff members at Sophie Grace will be followed by plenty of time for Q&A to explore areas of particular interest from members.

There will be four seminars spanning four weeks, each Wednesday in June.

The second seminar will cover how you can acquire an AFSL or ACL for your fintech business.

Free to FinTech Australia members, and only $20 for the entire series for non members! Those that attended last week’s seminar will have a code for a free ticket sent to their email

Money 20/20

Money20/20 is so much more than just the biggest FinTech event in Europe.

Around every corner lies one-of-a-kind networking opportunities, world-class actionable content and huge industry parties uniting everybody who is anybody across the world’s money ecosystem.

From the next generation of FinTech superstars, established industry power houses and trailblazing start-ups from across the payments, FinTech and financial services ecosystem, everyone is here, every time.

Join the global movement shaping the future of money this September in Amsterdam.

Date: 22 – 24 September 2020
REGISTER HERE

Monoova Happy Hour

With the success of our first two Happy Hour webinars, we have decided to keep the ball rolling with a new topic and a fresh panel. Tune in to hear about, Channel/Partnerships: What do they mean & why you have to invest in a great one!

Hosted by Tyson Hackwood from Monoova, our guest panellists include:

• Adam Mawdesley, Splitit
• Anthony Howe, Greensill
• Christine Rodrigues, Adobe
• Rehan Mark D’Almeida, Fintech Australia

IT’S FREE
REGISTER HERE

Date: Thursday, 11 June 2020
Time: 3:30pm