FinTech Voice, January 17, 2024

Written By Katrina Angelika

Hi Community,

Wishing you and the team a happy new year and all the best for the year! We consider 2024 to be a pivotal year for the industry. We are committed to promoting and advocating for investments, government incentives, streamlined regulations, and expanding trade and investment programs.

I can't wait to share a few other key initiatives and events that we'll be organising this year, including the Fintech for Net Zero event. Our member only inaugural FinTech at Parliament House has sold out! We look forward to driving awareness and sharing insights with the parliamentarians and policy makers.

For the Melbournians, you are invited to our first community event of the year on Jan 25th.

Kind regards,

Rehan D’Almeida,

General Manager,

FinTech Australia

Policy Update

Interim response to AI review

The Government has released an interim response to its consultation on safe and responsible AI in Australia.

The response recognises that many applications of AI do not present risks that require a regulatory response but that mandatory safety guardrails may be required for some high-risk settings.

In the immediate term, the Government will prioritise:

  • working with industry to develop a voluntary AI Safety Standard, implementing risk-based guardrails for industry;

  • working with industry to develop options for voluntary labelling and watermarking of AI-generated materials; and

  • establishing an expert advisory body to support the development of options for further AI guardrails.

'Super complaints' draft legislation consultation

The Government is consulting on draft legislation to implement a designated complaints function within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The function will enable designated consumer and small business advocates to submit a 'super complaint' to the ACCC where they have evidence of a significant or systemic market issue that affects consumers or small businesses. The ACCC would be required to respond to a complaint within 90 days. 'Designated complainant' organisations will be nominated by the Minister following passage of the legislation

FinTech Australia will make a short submission supporting the availability of the complaints function for small business complainants. If you are interested in contributing or have any feedback on the draft legislation, please reach out.

New climate reporting reforms

The Government has released draft legislation to implement new corporate climate-related financial disclosure requirements.

The draft legislation leverages the existing financial reporting regime in the Corporations Act to introduce mandatory requirements for large businesses and financial institutions to disclose their climate-related risks and opportunities. 

FinTech Australia does not propose making a submission but please reach out if this consultation is of interest.

Senate Inquiry into Australia's retirement system - fintech in focus

The Senate has launched a new inquiry on improving the consumer experience, choice and outcomes in Australia's retirement system. The Terms of Reference focus on: 'the potential role of FinTech in supporting retirement outcomes.' 

FinTech Australia will make a submission to this inquiry and is seeking interested members to contribute. If your business operates in the retirement space, please contact our policy team about contributing to our submission.

The closing date for initial submissions is 23 February 2024. 

We are currently working on the submission to:

  1. Scams - mandatory industry codes

  2. Payments System Modernisation (Regulation of Payment Service Providers)

We recently made submissions on:

  1. Regulating Digital Asset Platforms - Proposals Paper

  2. Reforms to the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998 – Exposure draft legislation consultation

  3. Screen Scraping - Policy and Regulatory Implications 

  4. CDR rules - Expansion to the non-bank lending sector

  5. CDR Consent Review and operational enhancements design papers

  6. ACCC Data Brokers Issues paper;

  7. Supporting Responsible AI: Discussion Paper;

  8. Licensing of payment service providers - payment functions;

  9. Reforms to the Payment Systems (Regulation) Act 1998;

  10. Modernising Australia's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing consultation;

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.

Upcoming Events

FinTech Australia have some exciting events coming up in the next few weeks!

  • RunTech 5K — no registration required, meet at the details below:

🗓 Thursday, 25 January 2024, 8 AM

📍 Stone & Chalk Startup Hub, Melbourne, VIC

🗓 Thursday, 25 January 2024, 5 PM

📍 Stone & Chalk Startup Hub, Melbourne, VIC

  • FinTech at Parliament House

🗓 Wednesday, 7 February 2024, 5.30 PM

📍 Mural Hall, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT

For more events and opportunities from the community, click here.

Community Updates

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

For more news, click here.

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! 🇦🇺

In our most recent Business Spotlight episode, we had the chance to dive deep in a discussion with Karl Durrance, Managing Director ANZ at Stripe, on the business' goals, what they are doing locally, and how they are involved in the fintech ecosystem in Australia.

Katrina Angelika
Previous

Five Fintechs on Friday, January 19, 2024
Next

Stake appoints new CEO as it scales to greater heights