Policy Update - February #1
FinTech at Parliament House
On 7 February 2024, Fintech Australia hosted members and partners at our inaugural FinTech at Parliament House event in Canberra as the launch event for the new 'Parliamentary Friends of FinTech' group, a non-partisan forum for parliamentarians co-chaired by Dr Daniel Mulino MP and Senator Andrew Bragg.
FinTech Australia will support the group by organising events and creating opportunities for parliamentarians to meet and interact with fintech leaders about the industry, starting with the launch event last week. Its aim is to foster a greater understanding of fintech-related issues and over time greater collaboration with parliamentarians on regulatory challenges facing the sector.
The evening featured a welcome address from Minister Stephen Jones during which he spoke about fintech's important role as part of the digital economy and its rapid growth over the last decade.
He also highlighted the regulatory wave coming, with new licensing frameworks for payments, digital asset platforms and BNPL, and the important role fintech can play in tackling the sharp rise in scams. Notably, he addressed the recent reporting on potential changes to the sophisticated investor threshold test and clarified that in considering next steps, he does not intend to restrict investment in early stage fintechs.
We would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who traveled to Canberra to support the event.
Check out photos from the event here.
Pre-budget Submission
FinTech Australia recently made a pre-budget submission to inform the Government's priorities for the 2024-25 Budget.
Our submission highlights six key priorities which require support through the Budget process:
Address the challenging funding environment for fintechs
Continue fintech trade and investment support
Ensure ASIC is adequately resourced to deal with upcoming licensing influx
Expand the NRF to clearly capture fintech
Provide targeted support for CDR promoting initiatives
Review the Enhanced Regulatory Sandbox
You can view our submission here.
Payments Licensing Submission
We also recently made our submission to the latest payments licensing consultation paper.
Thank you to members who got involved and supported this process, which ran over Christmas and involved a series of group calls and discussions throughout January.
Our submission supports the overall direction of the proposals to implement a new licensing framework for PSPs but details concerns about a number of definitional and practical implementation issues which could inhibit the new framework’s effectiveness in delivering the long-awaited goal of a more modern, fit-for-purpose payments system which supports fintech PSPs to compete and innovate.
We expect the next stage of consultation will be on draft legislation later this year.
You can view our submission on our website.
