Ashurst FinTech Summit Outlines Agenda for Australia

On Tuesday, 18 October, Ashurst was delighted to host the one-day FinTech Summit in Sydney.  Over the past nine years, the Summit has grown into "a not to be missed" event on the Australian FinTech calendar.

The program comprised of a seamless blend of thought-provoking and informative sessions.

Jaco Veldsman, Co-Founder of the FinTech Ashurst Start-Up of the Year Paytron, kicked off proceedings discussing Paytron's product roadmap and partnership with JP Morgan.

Westpac's Chief Technology Officer, David Walker and Head of Innovation & FinTech, Helen De Ornellas followed.  They spoke about how Westpac is looking to innovate and partner with fintechs.

After morning tea and networking, the delegates returned to the auditorium for a panel session chaired by Ashurst partner Jennifer Schlosser with representatives from the neobanks discussing how the challenger banks will change the Australian financial system.  The panel consisted of George Confos, Avenue Bank, Dean Gillespie, Islamic Bank Australia and Ashurst clients Simon Beitz, Founder & CEO of Alex Bank and Joseph Healy, CEO, Judo Bank.  Simon spoke of the need to ensure the challenger bank’s business models could lead to profitability within an agreed time frame.  While Joseph spoke of the need to communicate with shareholders about the path to profitability and the time frame required.

Another great panel discussion followed with TicToc's Anthony Baum and 2Be's Jenny Fagg speaking about digital lending.

The International Keynote speaker was Ashurst Finance Regulatory UK Partner, Bradley Rice.  Brad gave a very engaging talk about Ashurst’s international perspectives and insights on the digital asset and cryptoasset market.

There were four afternoon streams.  Ashurst Partner, Stuart Dullard, chaired a breakout session on funding the FinTech Revolution which has become a fixture on the program.  Panellists included Ron Spector, 1835i, Kylie Frazer, Flying Fox Ventures, Llew Jury, Sprint Ventures and Zia Zaman, Microsoft. 

Ashurst Digital Economy Partner, Tim Brookes chaired a session on the Consumer Data Right.  Tim was joined by other data experts Emily Martin, CDR Division, Treasury (Cth) and Carolyn Breeze, Zepto.  The panel session discussed the "unfinished business" of the Consumer Data Right (CDR) in Australia, the strengths and weaknesses of CDR in its current state and the near-term future expansions of CDR, both into new energy and telecommunications sectors and non-bank lending and merchant acquiring.

The Closing Keynote Discussion was a less formal affair.  Sub11's Chris Titley chaired a lively panel discussion with Ferocia's Dom Pym, Revolut's Matt Baxby and SeedSpace Venture Capital's, Lynda Coker.

Ashurst collaborated with Glen Frost, a well-known thought leader in the Fintech sector, on this event and Glen brought together a superb program.

Thank you to Stuart Dullard, Jennifer Schlosser, Brad Rice and Tim Brookes for joining the other influential panellists and speakers, and for providing thought-provoking and informative insights into the challenges that fintechs face and the opportunities that lie ahead.