FINANCE
Spotlight on
FAVOURING FINTECH
Making its name as one of the most prominent and upcoming
industries of today, recent estimates report that cumulative
investment in fintech over the next three-to-five years could
well exceed $150 billion. According to research released by
Accenture, Asia–Pacific has nearly doubled its 2015 fintech
financing in the first half of 2016, reaching almost $10 billion
with growth primarily being driven by China. Fintech is the
short-hand term for financial technology, a line of business
which uses software to provide financial services. The reason
for the unprecedented growth of this trade is simple, as PwC’s
‘2016 Global FinTech Survey’ highlights: “Where traditional
financial institutions have failed, fintechs are succeeding”.
As a result, a wide array of resources — such as fintech
information websites — are beginning to emerge to further
educate the public on the technology by offering several things:
an overview of the products available, an outline of how
customers can benefit from the services, and a list of the world’s
best start-ups to watch out for. According to fintechinnovators.
com, the number one fintech business in Asia–Pacific right now
is ZhongAn, an innovative online property insurance company
founded in 2013. It is the first company in China to be issued an
online insurance licence, and it utilises data technology to
assist with product design, automatic underwriting, auto
claims, precision marketing, and risk management. With a
business scope for wide expansion, ZhongAn is just one of
many fintech businesses worth keeping an eye on.BLOCKCHAIN BUZZ
Fintech’s scope extends beyond customer service, with
several companies offering a cost-saving prospect that
enables banks to operate more efficiently. The technology
everyone’s talking about is blockchain, or distributed ledger
technology. Take Google-backed start-up, Ripple, for example.
It is focusing on using blockchain technology to make global
cross-border banking transactions more efficient. The
company has raised more than US$93 million in funding and is
already working with fifteen of the top fifty global banks, as
well as with large strategic corporate partners. According to
Ripple, its technology will reduce the international payment
waiting time from a few days to seconds, at a third of the
current cost.CONFIDENCE IN OZ
If affairs continue at the current rate, Australia is en route to a
big milestone next year in terms of finance. According to The
Economist, the country will pass the Netherlands’ modern
record of twenty-six years of consecutive growth, with a GDP
rate that dwarfs that of America and the Eurozone at 3.1 per
cent. Additionally, as of 13 September this year, the four-week
moving average for the ‘ANZ–Roy Morgan Australian
Consumer Confidence’ bounced up to its highest level since
late 2013, ticking up to 118.2. This rise was likely due to theINDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT