Tag Archives: #banking

Three things crypto isn’t….

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Often, when the topic of cryptocurrency and blockchain comes up in conversation during social gatherings, I frequently hear that “crypto is a criminal venture, it’s a scam, and in any case, it has nothing to do with my life, so I can ignore it.”

Of course, there is an element of truth in each of these allegations. But the same level of scepticism or denial could be levelled at traditional finance systems (remember Enron, Bernie Madoff, Nick Leeson, LIBOR, the GFC….), on-line gambling (the house always wins….), and the early days of the Internet (I still recall one colleague saying “www” stood for “World-wide wait”…).

So allow me to address the charges frequently thrown at crypto:

1. “Crypto is only used by criminals.”

The irony is, of course, that blockchain is one of the most transparent financial systems ever built. Every transaction is recorded, permanent, and visible. It’s not the best tool for someone trying to hide something. Physical cash is opaque and frequently utilised in criminal enterprise.

2. “It’s a scam.”

Some of it probably is. But fraud, money laundering, hacking and illicit activity exist in traditional finance too. The difference is nobody calls the entire banking system a scam because of it. Crypto is just newer, and newer things attract more suspicion.

3. “It has nothing to do with my life.”

This one is the biggest misconception of all. If you’ve ever sent money overseas, there’s a good chance the payment provider used a blockchain or distributed ledger technology to process it, you just didn’t realise. Think of the Ripple Ledger, stablecoin networks like Circle, and the numerous projects that Chainlink is facilitating within inter-bank systems.

If you’ve ever tapped your phone to pay for something, you’ve used a digital wallet. A digital wallet in crypto works the same way, it holds your assets and proves they’re yours, and allows you to transact with those assets.

The only difference is there’s no bank sitting in between you and those transactions. The technology isn’t something new, you’re already using a version of it, you were just unaware.

Crypto is real and it’s already in your pocket.

The only things often missing are awareness, education and understanding.

Next week: Time for age limits on religion?

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My thanks to Simian Giria for helping to initiate this topic.

Banking Blues (pt. 481)

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Last week, I attended a networking evening for Intersekt, Australia’s largest annual fintech conference. Billed as the “flagship event of the Digital Innovation Futures Victoria Festival”, the 2-day event is supposed to take the pulse of Australian fintech – by highlighting current industry trends, showcasing local success stories and identifying areas for future growth and collaboration. I wasn’t able to attend the 2-day conference itself, but based on the networking audience, and the program agenda, it feels like there is very little “innovation” these days, and certainly not among the major banks.

The fintech product focus is still very much on payment solutions and open data – even though we’ve had the NPP and Open Banking for several years – plus SME lending (since the major banks have largely abandoned cashflow lending, just as they have exited wealth management and financial planning). There was barely an hour of the conference given over to crypto currencies and digital assets, and from what I could see, no sessions dedicated to Blockchain technology.

Challenger or neo-banks have not managed to gain traction in Australia, mainly due to the dominance of the incumbent banks, especially the so-called Big 4, which continue to enjoy an entrenched oligopoly protected by regulation. Despite Financial Services (banks, diversified financials and insurance) forming the largest sector (27%) of the ASX 200, it is highly concentrated and appears structurally designed to keep out competition (and hence, stifle innovation).

Indeed, I cannot think of a single new product that my bank has introduced in the 20 years I have been a customer. Over that time, I have held both personal and business accounts with this bank – mortgages, investment loans, credit cards, transaction accounts and savings products. They no longer offer wealth management services under their own name, and the share trading account I hold with them is actually operated by a foreign financial institution. At the same time, the bank has been shuttering branches, and disbanding services, often without any notice or customer communication.

My frustration with this bank goes unheeded – if anything, the customer service has worsened, often under the guise of “the Royal Commission”. The latter has no doubt given rise to staff cuts to pay for greater compliance costs, and is used to justify over-bureaucratic customer processes. Meanwhile, every time I raise a complaint, I’m told it’s the bank’s “systems” that are to blame, or their third-party service providers – it’s never the bank’s own fault, and they never take responsibility or demonstrate accountability.

These are just the latest incidents in a litany of poor customer experience:

1. A simple title transfer involved me visiting three different branches (thanks to branch closures and rotating staff), plus e-mailing and phoning an interstate office (at least the settlement was probably executed on Pexa’s blockchain-enabled platform…)

2. A glitch in setting up a replacement bank-issued credit card in my digital wallet was blamed on the card provider’s technology (even though I had just successfully linked this same card to my smart watch). I hope the bank has robust SLAs with this third party…

3. Some unsolicited (and highly misleading) e-mail marketing sent out under the bank’s name was blamed on another third-party provider (surely the bank must authorise what communications are issued in its name?)

4. I spent over 2 hours in a branch to open some basic term deposits in the name of existing businesses that already have client profiles and accounts with this same bank – a combination of bureaucracy, slow technology and cumbersome processes which still involve wet signatures on hard copy documents.

5. In the process of setting up one of these business accounts, it turns out the bank had the wrong company details on their core records, even though the statements are sent to the correct address. I advised the bank of the change of address several years ago, but despite the findings of the Royal Commission, the bank has not bothered to run a check on the ABN register, which is free to use, to check the company details.

The really depressing thought is that even if I switch banks, I will probably run into similar problems elsewhere!

Next week: Non-binary Politics?

The Social License to Operate

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The “social license to operate” is best described as follows: companies only get to do business so long as they retain the trust of their customers, employees and other community stakeholders.

The current debate about de-banking reminds us that financial institutions are among the largest beneficiaries of that social license, especially in Australia where the so-called 4 Pillar banks operate under a protected oligopoly. If you want to be cushioned against external and internal competition, then you need to demonstrate why you deserve to retain that privilege.

Apart from arbitrarily shutting customer accounts, banks are also closing local branches and/or reducing their opening hours. They are scaling back on the services available at some branches, even though their archaic processes still require existing customers to attend in person for things like ID verification and to apply wet signatures on hard copy documents. Seriously, you can’t have it both ways – reducing customer access while at the same time forcing customers to get to a branch to sign papers. (In a recent case, I ended up dealing with three separate branches, as well as an inter-state department, just to process some standard forms.)

The Banking Royal Commission dealt our major financial institutions several reputational blows – but rather than forcing them to improve their ways, foster innovation, increase efficiency, embrace technology and lift the overall customer experience, it seems that the banks have hunkered down in defence. They use the findings of that very same Royal Commission to justify why they now need to employ more and more layers of bureaucracy, form-filling and pen-pushing, in an attempt to cover their backsides and to mitigate against the public backlash.

And it’s not just the banks that are under increased community scrutiny – supermarkets, utilities, professional service firms, property developers, telcos, builders, insurers, landlords and tech companies are all facing various criticisms, for things like price gouging, squeezing suppliers, corruption, monopolistic and anti-competitive behaviours, poor quality products and service, financial irregularities, atrocious consumer data protection, environmental damage, unconscionable contractual terms and unreasonable policies. Unfortunately, our regulators don’t seem capable of holding these parties to account, so it will largely depend on consumers and the community to stand up for their own interests.

Next week: More on Music Streaming

 

 

 

Intersekt FinTech Pitch Night

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The opening event of the Intersekt 2021 Australian FinTech Conference was a startup pitch night, organised by FinTech Australia, hosted by YBF Ventures, and sponsored by Seed Money. The esteemed judging panel was drawn from a range of VC funds: Todd Forest (NAB Ventures), Nicole Small (Rampersand), Rohen Sood (Reinventure), Lynda Coker (SpeedSpace) and Lucinda Hankin (Grok Ventures).

The pitches in order of presentation (links are in the names):

Boulevard

A cloud-based share registry management platform for startups, founders and their employees. Designed to to be an exchange for unlisted securities, the platform also offers Investor Relations support and automated compliance solutions. Using Distributed Ledger Technology (which underpins Blockchain), the team are working with ASX DLT Solutions (responsible for the CHESS replacement) and deploying DAML, the programming language for modelling digital assets. They have also developed ASICLink, to automate company filings with the corporate regulator, plan to support corporate actions (including the verification of company financials), and are working with equity crowdfunding platforms. Boulevard has already on-boarded 30 companies, comprising 4,000 shareholders.

COGSflow

Describing itself as “Performance based finance”, this is essentially a merchant service offering cash-flow funding solutions for physical goods. This involves purchasing client inventory, and getting repaid on the sales performance. Using a funding ratio calculation as the basis of its credit risk model, the COGSflow will track sales data from the likes of eBay and Amazon (although both of these platforms, like PayPal, Alibaba etc. already offer SME financing of various forms). COGSflow will also analyze variable marketing and customer acquisition costs as inputs to its lending model, and plans to become a member of the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR), as well as seeking B Corp certification.

Archa

Archa is solving the challenges many SMEs face when trying to access corporate credit cards – banks generally demand personal guarantees from owners or directors before they issue cards, and when they do the “product is awful”. As the pitch described it, many bank-issued corporate cards are really designed as “a line of credit to acquire air miles”. With a mobile app already in the market, Archa incorporates an administration and expense management solution. A major bug bear for many companies is managing corporate subscriptions – all those SaaS apps that are tied to individual employee cards; consolidating, renewing and cancelling those services can be time-consuming and painful. The account administrator can also manage each card’s credit limit. Archa itself has principal issuer membership with MasterCard. In addition to an equity raise, the team is seeking debt funding to offer lines of credit. Channels to market will include SME lenders, accountants and lawyers.

Sherlok

According to the founders, most people paying too much on their mortgages – based on their home loan rate. Because mortgage brokers have 60% of the market, and rely on trailing commissions, there is little incentive for brokers to help their clients find a better rate or provider. However, 15% of brokers’ clients are leaving each year. Sherlok is an SaaS platform that uses AI to help brokers reprice and refinance their existing mortgage book. Using a broker subscription model, Sherlok is aiming to offer “single click refinancing”, although there was some equivocation about becoming a virtual brokerage itself. The founders feel that mortgage broking is still a relationship based business, and requires a human touch.

Axichain

Axichain is building a blockchain-based agricultural supply chain – a digital trading solution for cross-border commodities trading, with an initial focus on red meat. The founders are addressing three main supply chain pain points – market access, paperwork and payment.
Axichain combines smart contracts, an escrow solution and traceability linked to legal processes. Overall, the platform envisages multiple products and revenue streams. The team are seeking both equity and debt funding, the latter to provide lines of credit lines.

Parpera

The meaning of “Parpera” is “fair wallet”. By that, the founders mean they want to offer a range of banking and related services aimed at SME owners, sole traders and freelances. This could include business registration and set-up, better financial insights, and access to smarter banking products etc. It will include card services, payments and invoicing. The plan is to target customers who are about to set up a business, and to promote the service at the start/end of the financial year, hence the intention to use accountants as a channel to market.

Next week: Monash University Virtual Demo Day