This video shows Cuscal GM Adrian Lovney interviewing Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion (UK). They discuss the increase in competition in banking and payments including fintech disruption.
Author: Rachael Shupe
Dave Birch interview on mobile payments
Cuscal GM Adrian Lovney interviews Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion (UK) on how mobile banking and payments are changing, the rise of in-app purchasing and the movement towards checking in rather than checking out.
Dave Birch interview on the NPP
This video shows Cuscal GM Adrian Lovney interviewing Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion (UK) about the New Payments Platform and real-time payments.
Dave Birch interview on blockchain
This video shows Cuscal GM Adrian Lovney interviewing Dave Birch from Consult Hyperion (UK). They discuss blockchain and shared ledgers, and how they might be used in banking.
Cuscal takes 11pc stake in software company Moroku
Sydney, 2 June 2016: Cuscal and Moroku, a Sydney-based developer of mobile banking and payments software, have agreed terms which see Cuscal take a circa 11% stake in Moroku and a seat on its Board. Cuscal’s investment is part of a broader capital raising by Moroku.
Moroku was founded in 2012 by Colin Weir and Dave Durbin. Its main business is creating immersive digital experiences to help banks connect better with customers, so increasing their competitiveness and ability to acquire more customers. In the financial services area Moroku has already developed two innovative products:
- Game System – a platform for next generation financial service applications that employs motivational theory and gamification to build financial literacy
- Marrakash – a cloud-based POS and business platform that supports multiple payment instruments and can be white-labelled by financial institutions
Moroku will be using the capital injection to fund further business expansion (Moroku currently has clients in six countries) and will draw on Cuscal’s financial and payments expertise, and deep integration within the Australian banking industry, to help with this expansion.
Speaking about the investment, Cuscal MD Craig Kennedy said:
The partnership with Moroku is a good fit for Cuscal. Their expertise in gamification and app development will help broaden our own capabilities and allow us to enhance our digital and mobile offering, which is an increasingly important part of our clients’ product suite.
Moroku CEO, Colin Weir said:
There has been a significant increase in banks and insurance companies showing interest in partnering with smaller technology partners across the Asia-Pacific region in the last six months. The strategic relationship we are building with Cuscal brings us great distribution and experience at an industry level, enabling Moroku to play to its strengths around innovation, designing and deploying customer centric, digital, financial applications.
Media contact
Jake Waddell jwaddell@cuscal.com.au 0417 312 902
Cuscal joins Hyperledger Project
Sydney, 20 May 2016: Cuscal was yesterday announced as one of eight new members to join the Hyperledger Project, the collaborative blockchain effort being led by the Linux Foundation. The Project has grown 70% in membership since February this year.
The Hyperledger Project aims to build a core blockchain that can be used in a variety of industry solutions including financial services, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing and technology. Companies like IBM, Accenture, J.P. Morgan, Digital Asset, Intel and ANZ are already part of Hyperledger. R3, the company which leads a consortium of financial service businesses researching potential uses of blockchain, has a seat on Hyperledger’s board.
Commenting on the announcement, Brian Parker, General Manager, Emerging Business at Cuscal said:
“We’re very pleased to join the Hyperledger Project and be able to contribute our expertise in payments and real-time processing to an exciting project.
Blockchain feels a bit like the internet felt in its earliest days. It’s a genuinely new technology, with exciting potential and clear underlying value, but we don’t yet know exactly how that value will be realised. Distributed ledger technology has the potential to greatly improve legacy systems and processes and we believe that working collaboratively is the best way to achieve this goal.”
Read more about the Hyperledger Project.
Media contact
Jake Waddell jwaddell@cuscal.com.au 0417 312 902
Cuscal appoints new CIO and GM, Emerging Business
Cuscal CIO, Brian Parker, has taken on a new role as General Manager, Emerging Business. In Brian Parker’s new role his focus will be on exploring emerging business opportunities, and translating these into deliverable opportunities for clients. Brian will also continue to be the executive lead responsible for the successful end-to-end implementation of the NPP for Cuscal and its clients.
Hemant Kogekar has been appointed as Cuscal’s Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the next 12–18 months. Hemant has worked with Cuscal over the past four years as a consultant and advisor and has over 15 years’ experience as a C-level IT executive in major Australian companies including Suncorp, Citibank and Franklins.
Commenting on the restructure, Cuscal Managing Director, Craig Kennedy said:
“The payments industry is currently seeing rapid innovation including the growth of digital payments, emerging concepts such as blockchain, and the rise of non-traditional players. This means that we are operating in an extraordinarily dynamic environment.
To make sure we remain at the forefront of payments innovation, while continuing to deliver a reliable service to our clients we have decided to create a distinct focus on emerging business opportunities in payments. We are confident this will give the best result for us and our clients.”
Introducing the New Payments Platform webinar
This Cuscal webinar introduces the New Payments Platform (NPP), launching in 2017, and addresses some of the common questions around the NPP.
Hosted by Juvanka Roberts (Account Manager, Cuscal) and presented by Nathan Churchward (Senior Manager, Payments, Cuscal) the webinar talks about what the NPP will mean and what Cuscal is doing to prepare our clients for the NPP. The webinar also explains how the NPP will change the payments industry and how the industry itself is preparing for the NPP’s launch in 2017. Nathan also addresses several clients’ questions in the Q&A session at the end.
Mobile app now has biometrics and more
We have recently enhanced the functionality of our white-label, full-mobile banking app to include biometrics (fingerprint login), overseas notifications and feedback form as well as enhancing some current features. The next release of extra functionality is due in April/May.
Users with an iPhone 5s and above can now sign in to the app using their fingerprint, which will be safely stored in the device. For clients which also have our Vigil Fraud Bureau Service the app will allow customers to notify us about overseas travel, ensuring their cards will continue to function normally while travelling.
Commenting on the release, Cuscal’s Head of EFT, Acquiring and Digital, Colin Sultana said:
“This latest release builds on the existing functionality, including NFC tap and pay which we were the first to introduce in the Asia-Pacific, with CUA. These latest enhancements make our mobile banking app the most advanced of any white-label solution in Australia and equal to or better than some of the big banks’ offerings.
This is a very exciting time for mobile payments in Australia with Apple Pay arriving late last year in a limited form after a deal with Amex, Android Pay launching in Australia soon and Samsung Pay likely to arrive at some point this year.”
The next release of functionality for our full mobile banking app is due in April/May 2016 and is currently scheduled to include:
- The ability to block cards
- New and improved look and feel to the current mobile apps
RFi interview: Ashley on mobile banking and payments
As we jump feet first into 2016, RFi Group had the pleasure of sitting down with Ashley Williams, Cuscal’s Senior Manager – Digital, and someone right in the Cuscal workroom, to discuss progression in the mobile banking and payments apps space and what the latest is when it comes to digital wallets.
As General Manager of Product & Service at Cuscal Adrian Lovney stated in a LinkedIn Pulse Post early this year, 2016 is set to be the year mobile wallets go mainstream in Australia.
The announcement just before Christmas that Android Pay will arrive in Australia in early 2016 is big news for payments, but it’s also another significant step that’s slowly, but inevitably, taking mobile payments from niche to mainstream. There has been a lot of chatter about mobile wallets being the future of payments in Australia, but so far we haven’t seen many people actually use their mobile phones as wallets. 2016 is looking like the year that will change this.
RFi Group met with Ashley who went on to explain Cuscal’s sharp focus on providing superlative technical integration for their customers and are currently nothing short of delighted to be experiencing such a huge take up for the new product. With 41 of their clients signing up to The Pays for day one, the figures are accounting for roughly 90% of their card volume.
Providing these solutions for our clients means that the work we do for them now, puts them in a key position to be able to launch into other wallets as soon as they’re available. We are focused on that technical build, creating and facilitating the links into the schemes (specifically Mastercard, Visa and eftpos) and then into the three different wallet providers (Google, Apple and Android) – meaning phones can in effect become a digital wallet.
As well as managing the technical integration and back end ‘maze’ of complexity this project brings, Cuscal will be providing customers with marketing toolkits and training support to guide them through the adverting process.
And to help, they have some pretty stellar partners –
We’re collaborating with Google to ensure the campaigns are consistent across the market and offer a seamless customer experience. In terms of Cuscal itself, all 41 of our clients will be out in the market promoting and marketing from day one.
With all this change, we wondered, what can customers expect? Ashley is frank but fair –
Obviously mobile banking apps with contactless payments have been around for some time, and the payments part of the equation isn’t something new, what we do believe is going to change is the market awareness and public’s perception of payments – it is really set to shift dramatically.
Ashley goes on to cite the key differences for the Android Pay launch, compared to the way Australian financial institutions launched their mobile wallets in dribs and drabs. There is a clear plan to wait until everyone is ready and “all the ducks are in a row”, before they go live. “From a market perspective, it will be a huge coordinated push.” She says.
The concept and launch of the digital wallet itself, Ashley explains, is when things will get interesting. Cuscal’s view is that the ecosystem will change as pay providers (Google, Apple and Samsung) begin to partner with merchants and the in-out purchasing becomes a big component of the wallet. The loyalty of that ‘front of wallet’ card provider will move it from purely a transactional product, to an all-encompassing solution.
Other benefits lie, perhaps unsurprisingly, in data.
Because of the richness of the data we can receive, Cuscal’s FI customers will have full exposure to behaviour and trends of their card holders. They will have access to information such as default card choice or individual selection of card, which will deliver great insight to a bank regarding what their customers are doing.
This all provides banks with more information than they have ever had before and therefore the ability to reach out to their customers about card choice or behaviours. Other advantages can be found in the origination process of Android Pay. If a customer doesn’t have a banks mobile banking app, the functionality will prompt them to register. Again, providing yet another way for banks to increase the amount of customers they have using their banking app.
Ashley thinks this increased functionality is likely to take mobile payments to the masses.
With increased advertising and marketing from Google, as well as almost every Australian FI encouraging people to use these new offerings, the shift to mobile payments as the major, if not one day, sole, channel, is inevitable.
It is a huge shift, but we are at a stage now that it is not about acceptance, but more so, customer preference. It will need to work and it will need to work consistently, but we expect customer take-up to be rapid.
If it is in fact to become a comprehensive digital “wallet”, Cuscal sees the need for other parties to get one board and quickly. As seen in the UK, the rise in mobile tap and pay payments since its integration with transport for London’s Oyster network, was exponential. If case studies such as this are anything to go by, it is obvious that with the inclusion of an individual’s drivers licence, Opal/ Myki (travel) card, Medicare card, health insurance card, could really begin to speed things up and quickly. As Ashley quickly points out, the payments piece is only one component.
Ashley closes noting that Cuscal is in fact in a unique position compared to other affiliate parties.
“We are not just one institution, we are representing so many. Essentially we have 41 individual projects running seamlessly and in many ways, in conjunction, which is a huge achievement. For us to be able to match the market and to be there for day one of the launch, mobilising teams so quickly, is exciting and we really feel like it is going to make a huge impact.”
This article first appeared in the March 2015 edition of RFi Group’s Australian Retail Banker (which is no longer available on their website).