Fed up with the great resignation? How hard it is out there to find people? Is it a lack of talent? Big tech hoarding? Overinflated salaries? Big tech are secretly laying off up to 30% of staff, managing reduced valuations and increasing costs. This trickles down to startups as a resetting of valuations and raises. Fintech's will need to do more with less. But as the great resignation turns into the great redundancy, maybe the gravy train is over. Can Fintech pickup talent searching for a new home? Perhaps, but there might be a slight re-adjustment on salary expectations.https://www.smartcompany.com.au/opinion/adam-schwab-tech-layoffs-jobs/

In between bites of their sausage sizzles, many Australians may not have realised the impact of their vote on the 4th largest export industry in Australia, Technology.Australia contributes c1.6% of Global GDP. In comparison we contribute c2.1% of the Fintech market size globally as the 6th largest hub.Payments, Crypto, CBDC and other financial regulatory and infrastructure changes sit poised with our new Government.The next steps we take will demonstrate to the world if we are a tech follower or leader.The opportunity exists, isn't it time Australia put on their big boy technology pants?https://www.afr.com/technology/australia-gets-its-second-shot-at-being-a-tech-nation-20220523-p5ants

Open Banking FinTech Frollo's latest consumer report suggests two thirds of consumers would consider changing banks if the process was easier and friction was removed.The report surveyed consumers from a range of backgrounds, and not just those who already use FinTech products, supporting the hypothesis that if banks offers products & services that have hitherto been offered only by FinTechs, consumer appetite would be high.Recent changes to the Open Banking accreditation process have seen a flurry of activity outside the banking section, offering further vindication and traction of the CDR (consumer data right) regime.https://www.frollo.com.au/blog/two-thirds-of-australians-want-to-use-open-banking-to-switch-banks/

Can Fintech change the world, for good?If you ask many of the founders applying new models to financial services, then yes.From supporting reforestation, powering solar energy projects, tracking and highlighting carbon emissions to enabling access to ethical and sustainable investments, the rise of Green Fintech is no longer a trend.A new ecological awareness of product use is here, customers care and why shouldn't that include financial products?Investors are also taking note with a significant increase in sustainable investments in Fintech.And at the forefront in Australia is Startup Bootcamp's recently launched Sustainable Fintech Fund.https://www.startupbootcamp.com.au/blog/global-sust

Woolworths announced today the launch of their Everyday Pay Wallet, a new way to pay and collect rewards at check-out.As a payments nerd, I'm excited to see what the update will be in what is the first real test for QR codes since we had to check-in everywhere we went!I for one look forward to using it and seeing what the experience is like but as ever, the public will determine it's success through adoption.In the future will there just be a QR code check-in and no check-out to broaden the Scan & Go experience?https://www.itnews.com.au/news/woolworths-wraps-digital-wallet-into-its-loyalty-app-579826

The RBA announced this week that the major banks will be allowed an extra 9 months to deliver PayTo, the highly anticipated iteration of NPP (new payments platform) allowing payment initiation.Perhaps for Fintech, this is a prudent time to validate, innovate and prepare so that when launched, solutions hit the ground running and we see a shorter j-curve for adoption.What are some innovative use cases for PayTo in market for both consumers and business?https://www.itnews.com.au/news/major-banks-get-more-time-to-deliver-new-npp-functionality-579512Note: PayTo is still due to go-live mid-2022 with a number of participating institutions.