Fintech Voice April 6, 2023

Hi Community,

We want you to be the first to hear about and save the dates for the Three (not Two) flagship events for this year!

🏆 The Finnies Awards 2023, 31 May 2023 - The gala awards night in Melbourne will bring together leaders in the industry to highlight and celebrate its success. Tickets to be announced in two weeks.

🤝 Intersekt Festival 2023, 30-31 August 2023 at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne - Authentic conversations with the largest cohort of fintechs. Expect a larger, high quality audience, international delegates and speakers, more sessions, more networking, more satellite events and high demand exclusive dinners! Updated website for super early bird tickets will be live soon!

🔒 CDR Month, June 2023 - In partnership with FDATA and AIIA, we are organising a series of events, workshops, roundtables and presentations to showcase the commercial opportunities, navigate the challenges and celebrate the world leading work being done. Website will be live in a few weeks but save the date for 29 June, 2023 for the CDR Showcase event hosted by us in Sydney.

Nick Kavass, our policy lead, recently presented to Treasury on stakeholder engagement and fintech policy priorities for 2023. See policy section for more information and thank you to all our members for participating in the policy discussions and providing inputs to our submissions.

We also welcome our newest members Turbolease, Remitly, Butter Insurance, JustFund and Canvas.

We hope you've registered and accessed our new member platform, you will have access to more member benefits and opportunities through this platform and we suggest you update all the company information and include your team mates so no comms is missed.

As always, please reach out if you have any queries or suggestions.

Kind regards,

Rehan D’Almeida,

General Manager,

FinTech Australia

Policy Update

FinTech Australia presents to Treasury on stakeholder engagement, fintech priorities

Our Policy Lead, Nick Kavass, recently delivered a presentation to Treasury's Capital Markets, Payments and Financial Innovation Branch on stakeholder engagement and fintech policy priorities for 2023. This Branch is responsible for payments, digital assets and financial innovation policy.

The Treasury is committed to working with the FinTech industry and other stakeholders, on the key issues to underpin the continued innovation in financial services. With a busy reform agenda for the year ahead, they are keen to engage more closely with the fintech community in upcoming consultations.

Senator Bragg introduces revised crypto regulation Bill

Senator Andrew Bragg last week introduced to the Senate a revised version of the crypto regulation Bill. The Bill addresses some of the feedback received, including from FinTech Australia, during a consultation late last year.

The Bill is a private member's bill and not a Government bill. Private members' bills are not law unless they gain the support of the majority of members and pass the Senate.

The Bill has now been referred for inquiry to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, with its report due 2 August 2023.

Consultation on proposed amendments to AFCA Rules and Operational Guidelines

AFCA has commenced consultation on changes to its operational rules and guidelines. These changes are being implemented in response to the 2021 Independent Review of the AFCA Scheme, which made 13 recommendations to improve AFCA's procedures.

The changes proposed include:

Strengthening AFCA's ability to deliver procedural fairness and manage unreasonable and inappropriate conduct;
Dealing with complaints where an appropriate offer of settlement has been made or where issues in dispute have been previously settled;
Excluding complaints lodged by professional or sophisticated investors; and
Providing clarity about the effect of AFCA determinations and ensuring complaints are finalised in a more timely and efficient manner.

FinTech Australia will make a submission. Please reach out if you are interested in contributing.

The consultation closes on 22 May 2023.

Current consultations

We are currently developing submissions to consultations on:

We recently made submissions on:

See our recent submissions on our website.

FinTech Australia regularly makes submissions to consultations across a wide range of policy and regulatory issues. Communications about how to get involved in these processes are distributed to our Policy Working Group membership.

If you would like to get involved, please check out our GlueUp Platform to register or reach out directly to our policy team.

Upcoming Events

A Study of Enterprise Blockchain-Driven Connected Ecosystems

Fintech Australia members are invited to be part of a research project through UNSW and the Blockchain Association of Singapore, in collaboration with Dedoco. The project aims to examine the role of enterprise blockchain technology in establishing the state of its adoption and use cases within the business environment in enabling mobility, trust, interoperability, and better workflow.

Learn more

APAC Payments Excellence Awards

Entries for the APAC Payments Excellence Awards have been opened.

Showcase your innovation, build credibility, and connect with other innovators by entering your initiative/solution/excellence process into the APAC Payments Excellence Awards program.

Submit Entries Here!

Community Updates

Don’t miss all the news and insights from our members and corporate partners from our newsroom.

Stables launches Asia Pacific's first stablecoin-only wallet with a payment card for everyday spending, powered by Mastercard
NETSOL signs multi-million dollar agreement with leading Japanese equipment finance company in Australia
ClearScore expands in Australia, serving 1m users
Ensurance Ltd invests up to A$1.5M in KOBA Insurance
CreditorWatch have released a Portfolio Risk Benchmarking Report, providing Australian businesses to credit risk benchmarking insights
Paypa Plan raises $10m in series A funding
Kraken becomes the official partner of Williams Racing
Chainanalysis released an article about the impact of the demise of SVB towards crypto and USDC
Paycepaid acquired Australian Debt Recoveries in a multi-million dollar deal
Shamus Hodgson, former CEO of Lumon, is appointed as group CEO of CurrencyFair and Zai.