Financial Services News

Westpac has detailed its previously proposed plans to slash its technology systems count by more than two-thirds between now and 2028, in an ambitious program to reduce complexity and operating costs, streamline operations, and establish “upgraded technology foundations”.   The...

Westpac will prompt its payers to high-risk accounts with a series of dynamic questions to help prevent potential payments to scammers, the bank revealed as part of its newest scam prevention capability. The promised anti-scam function, first announced last September,...

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has joined several global investment partners in a US$47 million (AU$72 million) capital injection for UK-based global payments compliance company Global Screening Services (GSS), with CBA stating that it may embed the regtch’s platform....

WA-based mutual banking group P&N has revealed details of its successful deployment of a new cloud-based lending platform, supporting the group’s business banking expansion. The group, which operates both the P&N Bank brand in Western Australia and BCU Bank in...

Zurich has announced the winner of the Australian round of its fifth annual Innovation Championships, with Canberra-based fintech Haast selected to take on other regional winners across the globe. Haast offers a range of artificial intelligence-backed multimodal solutions to index,...

Nearly a quarter of insurance brokers regard the technology they use for their work as “unfit for purpose”, according to a new industry survey, with concerns these systems – many considered “antiquated” – are too confusing and a sap on...

Australia’s biggest industry super fund, AustralianSuper, will look to deliver an up to 30 per cent productivity boost across its organisation over the coming years using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the company has revealed. The firm has set a rather...

Policymakers have been warned not to “act too quickly to clamp down” on artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, with concerns from a leading asset manager that overregulation of the burgeoning technology could strangle innovation, and thus stifle wealth-building opportunities emerging from...

Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) represents a step-change development for the insurance sector and will significantly enhance insurers’ business operations, with QBE Ventures’ global head of emerging technology Alex Taylor urging insurers to start experimenting with the technology now before...

Global payments infrastructure and standards developer Swift has been selected by Australian Payments Plus (AP+) to develop its promised Confirmation of Payee system. Announced late last year as part of the Australian banking sector’s Scam Accord, the proposed Confirmation of...

Sydney-based fintech GetCape, which specialises in SME cash management, has been acquired by UK fintech Anna.Money. Anna.Money, a cashflow management and tax assistance app, said the acquisition – the company’s first – would give it “the unique capability to blend...

Scott Farrell, member of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA’s) Payments System Board and lead author of the financial services industry-defining payment systems review, has cautioned regulators and developers to avoid the temptation to simply ‘plug and play’ another country’s...

The ACCC has welcomed the contribution of the financial services sector in helping to deliver a significant drop in dollar losses to scams, with the consumer protection watchdog’s Scamwatch service recording a 43 per cent decline in losses to scams...

Great Southern Bank (GSB), formerly Credit Union Australia, has unveiled its new all-in-one, neobank-inspired business banking app targeted at the “underserved” small business market. The app currently offers micro (businesses employing under five staff) and nano (sole trader) business users...

The Federal Government’s just-released exposure draft legislation has struck a crucial balance of protecting consumers without hindering choice, competition and innovation in the buy now, pay later (BNPL) sector, according to the Australian Finance Industry Association (AFIA). The peak financial...