Archive for Innovation

  • The return of the second tier The return of the second tier

    OPINION As Treasurer Wayne Swan prepares to release a package of banking reforms, and Senate committee members get ready to grill bankers about the level of competition in their sector, it’s clear we could soon seen the return of the second tier. From out of cycle rate rises, to disrupti...

  • Australian banks change tack on personal financial management Australian banks change tack on personal financial management

    NEWS Banks including NAB, Suncorp and Citibank are to deploy personal financial management tools to online banking users, despite many local bankers previously expressing cynicism over likely uptake. Online Banking Review understands NAB is currently piloting a personal budgeting tool wit...

  • ANZ embraces mobile payments ANZ embraces mobile payments

    NEWS ANZ has released an iPhone application that allows customers to send money to anyone with an Australian bank account using only their mobile phone number as an identifier. It is the first application launched by a major Australian bank that offers a "pay by mobile" function, which al...

  • Partnering with start-ups can pay for banks Partnering with start-ups can pay for banks

    “If banks were doing their job correctly there wouldn’t be a PayPal or a Mint” says Richard Aberman. In reality if banks made business accounts simpler there may not be a need for Aberman’s business WePay either, and he knows it. WePay is a start-up founded in 2008 to help groups colle...

  • Do you do what you do best, and partner for the rest? Do you do what you do best, and partner for the rest?

    When PayPal recently decided to upgrade and boost the uptake of is mobile phone application, it partnered with young start-up Bump Technologies, a business that enables people to share information simply by bumping their mobile phones together. The result: more than one million downloads of its new ...

  • Australian companies line up for Finovate Australian companies line up for Finovate

    The list of companies demoing their wares at Finovate in May has been announced, with two Australian companies included. Finovate happens twice a year, and showcases financial technology innovation from around the world. Here’s our wrap from last year’s Fall event in New York: Where wer...

  • Thou shalt bank on an iPad Thou shalt bank on an iPad

    It’s been labeled “the biggest advance in bathroom reading technology in human history”, but jokes aside, has Apple just unveiled a device that will boost mobile banking? Or has Steve Jobs simply added to the growing number of screens we can stare at our bank balance from? The iPad, which l...

  • Why a lack of competition is holding back Australia's financial sector Why a lack of competition is holding back Australia’s financial sector

    It’s perhaps no surprise that the Government-commissioned report ‘Australia as a Financial Centre’ uses the word innovation just a handful of times. As the report’s authors admit, it’s strength, stability and a sound regulatory environment that characterise leading financial centres. It...

  • Competition will return in 2010. Will the major banks be ready for it? Competition will return in 2010. Will the major banks be ready for it?

    Banks should innovate rather than hibernate in a crisis said ANZ head of online banking Sam Plowman back in March. Plowman has since moved on to a new role heading up the direct channel at NAB, the other of the aptly named ‘two stumps’. Australia’s banks have so far performed well in the...

  • Hugo Schreuder, CEO of Youi on building a new insurance business Hugo Schreuder, CEO of Youi on building a new insurance business

    In this edition of the Banking Review Podcast, contributor Jen Storey gets inside the world of Hugo Schreuder who was tasked with setting up the Youi insurance business in Australia some two years ago. In this 20 minute interview Hugo discusses the challenge of moving to a new country to start a ...

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