Fintech Voice, June 22, 2023
Hi Community,
We look forward to hosting you all to the CDR Showcase event on June 29 in Sydney. We're excited to bring a few key diverse voices in the space including Scientia Professor Ross Buckley, Howard Silby, Chief Innovation Officer at NAB, Richard Koch, Senior Policy Lead at Open Banking UK and other thought leaders.
We hope to run this event annually to raise awareness and promote uptake of the Consumer Data Right. We are keeping the ticket prices as low as possible and appreciate your support by attending and promoting it to your network to help make this event a success - https://events.humanitix.com/cdr-showcase-2023.
Our event partners AIIA and FDATA chaired a roundtable discussion yesterday with conversations around action initiation, regulatory frameworks, the global comparative context with representatives from Singapore and New Zealand and the big picture for digital economy policy and digital identity. Read policy update section to know more.
Our corporate partner, RSM released a SME survival guide to handle the heat from rising inflation and interest rates. Download RSM's thinkBIG report here.
Kind regards,
Rehan D’Almeida,
General Manager,
FinTech Australia
Policy Update
Government responds to the Quality of Advice Review
The Government has issued its long-awaited response to the Quality of Advice Review. The Government has accepted 14 of the 22 Review recommendations for the overhaul of financial advice regulation.
The outcomes of this response can be broken down into three streams:
Stream 1 (Financial Advice) - This involves eliminating unnecessary regulations that add to the cost of advice without benefiting consumers. This includes streamlining the process of providing financial advice, such as simplifying consent and documentation requirements and removing the safe harbour steps from the best interests duty.
Stream 2 (Superannuation) - Efforts will be made to improve access to retirement income advice. This includes reviewing how superannuation trustees can charge fees for advice and expanding the scope of intra-fund advice, allowing superannuation funds to provide advice to their members.
Stream 3 (New models) - The government aims to explore alternative channels for delivering financial advice, including banks and insurers. This exploration will involve industry consultation to assess the feasibility and potential benefits of utilising these new channels.
The Government plans to introduce legislation to implement the outcomes of the response later this year. Further consultation will also be conducted on new channels for advice, including consideration of digital advice models.
Two new tax incentives legislated to boost SME digital and tech capacity
This week legislation passed to enact the Technology Investment Boost and the Skills and Training Boost tax incentives, previously announced in the Federal Budget:
Small and medium businesses with an annual turnover of less than $50 million will have access to a bonus 20 per cent deduction for eligible expenditure on external training of employees by providers registered in Australia, until 30 June 2024.
Small and medium businesses will also have access to a bonus 20 per cent deduction that will support the uptake of digital technologies, until 30 June 2023.
Check out the ATO website to learn more.
Government flags upcoming consultation on an 'unfair trading' prohibition
In a speech last week, Minister Jones indicated the Government will commence consultation on a unfair trading prohibition next month.
He flagged several instances of what could be considered unfair trading practices in the digital economy, including:
tricking consumers into consenting to data collection;
omitting vital information to stop consumers making informed decisions; or
preying on vulnerable consumers using excessive tracking of data.
ACCC seeking feedback on CDR Data Holder Rectification Schedule
The ACCC has launched a survey to inform improvements to the Data Holder Rectification Schedule. The survey is an outcome of the ACCC's April findings paper on data quality.
The rectification schedule lists data holders who have self-reported implementation gaps in their consumer data sharing systems. The schedule includes information on known issues and the rectification dates proposed by data holders.
Open Data Roundtable - CDR Month
On Tuesday, FinTech Australia, FDATA, and the AIIA hosted an Open Data roundtable in Canberra as part of the CDR Month initiative.
The wide ranging discussion covered action initiation, regulatory frameworks, the global comparative context with representatives from Singapore and New Zealand and the big picture for digital economy policy and digital identity. The session also covered the centrality of use cases and life journeys. It was a sustained and useful discussion looking ahead to the future of CDR.
There was a combined audience of over 100 people both online and in-person with representatives from both industry and government. Thank you to all of our members who took part in this discussion.
Current consultations
We are currently developing submissions to consultations on:
Department of Industry, Science and Resources - Supporting Responsible AI : Discussion Paper;
Modernising Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing consultation.
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 & Opportunities
India's booming economy and thriving fintech industry offer significant market opportunities for Australian companies expanding internationally. Join Austrade's India Tech Export Catalyst (ITEC) Program to learn about the India’s tech sector and develop a practical market entry strategy.
Stripe Tour is coming to Sydney! With an amazing line-up of businesses and tech leaders including Mark Cannon-Brookes (Atlassian), Katrina Barry (me&u), Tom Humphrey (Blackbird), Clare Kinsey (Karta), Dane Thomas (Ignition), Ryan McQueen (Accenture), & Tim Howard (SiteMinder), Stripe Tour Sydney will provide you insights from Stripe's largest and growing users as well as advices to advance your business in these changing times.
Pause Awards ’23 is redefining business excellence with new award levels, an Investable
ScoreTM, a diverse panel of 60 judges from leading Australian companies, from the likes of Mastercard, Airtasker, Google, Medibank, DEPT®, AWS, Bookings.com, Microsoft, Birchal join the panel, and 11 new categories!
Entries are open from 17 May to 1 Sep 2023.
Join The RegTech Association’s #RegTechEdgeNoBorders program series which is designed to showcase RegTech solutions that address the global challenges across a complex regulatory landscape and focuses on key risk areas across the RegTech taxonomy.
Series 1 - Data Protection, Domain Risk, Process Risk, Information Security Solutions
Series 2 - Financial Crime - AML, CTF, Sanctions, Fraud Solutions
Community Updates
Don’t miss all the news and insights from our members and corporate partners from our newsroom.
Cape, next-gen Spend Management platform, taps ex-Paypal, Braintree, GoCardless, Zepto Exec for Board Advisor. Article Here
GoCardless appoints new Chief People Office and Head of Corporate Development to accelerate growth. Article Here
Beforepay named 2023 Ethical Lender of the Year in Global Pan Finance Awards.
InvestHK announces launch of Global Fast Track 2023 with Global Scaleup Competition across 12 cities.
Financial Institutions running on a SaaS platform recover more than twice as fast in an era of disruption. Article Here
Novatti's Australian Dollar-backed stablecoin (AUDD) is live on the XRP Ledger. Article Here
Introducing CryptoCrispy: Unleashing the Power of the Next Generation AI for Traders. Article Here
EBP Money partners with Aryza to power their 'digital first' lending business.
Industry News
News from the fintech industry you don't want to miss!
New Members
Let's welcome FinTech Australia's new members! 🎉
FinTech Australia's Podcast
Listen to the challenges, opportunities, and stories from our community faces across the fintech industry in Australia! 🇦🇺
Listen to our newest series "Business Spotlight", where we discuss with Rowan Wilde, co-founder of HelpPay, about their business history, journey, and future plans.
