Reserve Bank

Telix Expands U.S. Development and Manufacturing Infrastructure with Acquisition of IsoTherapeutics

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 26, 2024

Founded in 2005, IsoTherapeutics is a privately held, commercial-stage company, which provides radiochemistry and bioconjugation development and contract manufacturing services to many companies in the radiopharmaceutical industry, including Telix.

Key Points: 
  • Founded in 2005, IsoTherapeutics is a privately held, commercial-stage company, which provides radiochemistry and bioconjugation development and contract manufacturing services to many companies in the radiopharmaceutical industry, including Telix.
  • In line with Telix’s continued investment in the vertical integration of supply chain, manufacturing and development capabilities, the acquisition is expected to further enhance Telix’s in-house drug development capabilities.
  • A key driver for the acquisition is to enable Telix to bring select aspects of its development programs in-house, with the goal of reducing cost and time to achieve technical milestones.
  • The acquisition will also expand Telix’s U.S. manufacturing footprint with a site that includes a GMP1 clean room and production infrastructure suitable for clinical use.

Kiwibank Goes Live with ACI Worldwide's Enterprise Payments Platform

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, March 7, 2024

Kiwibank has successfully gone live with ACI Worldwide’s Enterprise Payments Platform, a managed cloud solution that will process all of Kiwibank’s account-to-account real-time payments.

Key Points: 
  • Kiwibank has successfully gone live with ACI Worldwide’s Enterprise Payments Platform, a managed cloud solution that will process all of Kiwibank’s account-to-account real-time payments.
  • View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240306222382/en/
    “Aligned with our vision for transformation and to build a new, modern, flexible tech stack, the ACI Enterprise Payments Platform is vital for future-proofing our payments system.
  • Future phases of our migration will include moving domestic and international payment functionality out of our old systems and onto ACI Enterprise Payments Platform as well as offering services like real-time payments,” said Stephen.
  • “The cloud-native managed service Enterprise Payments Platform solution is a transformative move for Kiwibank to leapfrog the competition.

Australia Buy Now Pay Later Report 2024: BNPL Firms are Forging Strategic Alliances to Provide Targeted Offers to Shoppers at Checkout - ResearchAndMarkets.com

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 28, 2024

The buy now pay later industry is projected to grow at a steady pace over the medium term in Australia.

Key Points: 
  • The buy now pay later industry is projected to grow at a steady pace over the medium term in Australia.
  • The report from the Reserve Bank of Australia revealed that 40% of shoppers, aged 18 to 39, are using the buy now pay later schemes in Australia.
  • To provide e-commerce shoppers with more relevant offers at checkout, while targeting higher gross merchandise volume, BNPL firms are entering into strategic partnerships in the Australian market.
  • This report provides in-depth, data-centric analysis of Buy Now Pay Later industry in Australia through 55 tables and 71 charts.

Why prices are so high – 8 ways retail pricing algorithms gouge consumers

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 15, 2024

Fels wants to give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission more power to investigate and more power to prohibit mergers.

Key Points: 
  • Fels wants to give the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission more power to investigate and more power to prohibit mergers.
  • But it helps to know how they try to trick us, and how technology has enabled them to get better at it.

1. Asymmetric price movements

  • Otherwise known as Rocket and Feather, this is where businesses push up prices quickly when costs rise, but cut them slowly or late after costs fall.
  • It seems to happen for petrol and mortgage rates, and the Fels inquiry was presented with evidence suggesting it happens in supermarkets.

2. Punishment for loyal customers

  • A loyalty tax is what happens when a business imposes higher charges on customers who have been with it for a long time, on the assumption that they won’t move.
  • It’s often done by offering discounts or new products to new customers and leaving existing customers on old or discontinued products.
  • The plans look good at first, and then less good as providers bank on customers not making the effort to shop around.

3. Loyalty schemes that provide little value

  • Fels says loyalty schemes can be a “low-cost means of retaining and exploiting consumers by providing them with low-value rewards of dubious benefit”.
  • Their purpose is to lock in (or at least bias) customers to choices already made.

4. Drip pricing that hides true costs

  • They often offer initially attractive base fares, but then add charges for baggage, seat selection, in-flight meals and other extras.
  • Read more:
    Junk fees and drip pricing: underhanded tactics we hate yet still fall for

5. Confusion pricing


Related to drip pricing is confusion pricing where a provider offers a range of plans, discounts and fees so complex they are overwhelming. Financial products like insurance have convoluted fee structures, as do electricity providers. Supermarkets do it by bombarding shoppers with “specials” and “sales”. When prices change frequently and without notice, it adds to the confusion.

6. Algorithmic pricing

  • Algorithmic pricing is the practice of using algorithms to set prices automatically taking into account competitor responses, which is something akin to computers talking to each other.
  • It can act even more this way when multiple competitors use the same third-party pricing algorithm, effectively allowing a single company to influence prices.

7. Price discrimination

  • Price discrimination involves charging different customers different prices
    for the same product, setting each price in accordance with how much each customer is prepared to pay.
  • While it can make prices lower for some customers, it can make prices much more expensive to customers in a hurry or in urgent need of something.

8. Excuse-flation

  • Excuse-flation is where general inflation provides “cover” for businesses to raise prices without
    justification, blaming nothing other than general inflation.
  • It means that in times of general high inflation businesses can increase their prices even if their costs haven’t increased by as much.

A political solution is needed

  • We will need political help.
  • Only then can we create a marketplace where ethics and competition align, ensuring both business prosperity and consumer wellbeing.


David Tuffley is affiliated with the Australian Computer Society (Member).

Nium Named to the Forbes Fintech 50 List for Second Year in a Row

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nium , the leader in real-time global payments, has been named to the prestigious Forbes Fintech 50 - a list of the most innovative companies in financial technology - for the second year in a row.

Key Points: 
  • SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nium , the leader in real-time global payments, has been named to the prestigious Forbes Fintech 50 - a list of the most innovative companies in financial technology - for the second year in a row.
  • "It's an honor to be among the world's best again on the Forbes Fintech 50 list," said Prajit Nanu, Co-founder and CEO at Nium.
  • Last year, Nium was named on the CB Insights Fintech 100, a list of the most promising fintech companies.
  • This year, the company was added to Statista's Fastest Growing Companies list and named Best Technology Initiative at The Card and Payments Awards.

Nium Named to the Forbes Fintech 50 List for Second Year in a Row

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nium , the leader in real-time global payments, has been named to the prestigious Forbes Fintech 50 - a list of the most innovative companies in financial technology - for the second year in a row.

Key Points: 
  • SAN FRANCISCO and SINGAPORE, Feb. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Nium , the leader in real-time global payments, has been named to the prestigious Forbes Fintech 50 - a list of the most innovative companies in financial technology - for the second year in a row.
  • "It's an honor to be among the world's best again on the Forbes Fintech 50 list," said Prajit Nanu, Co-founder and CEO at Nium.
  • Last year, Nium was named on the CB Insights Fintech 100, a list of the most promising fintech companies.
  • This year, the company was added to Statista's Fastest Growing Companies list and named Best Technology Initiative at The Card and Payments Awards.

Flywire Partners with State Bank of India (SBI) to Digitize Education Payments from India

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 6, 2024

BOSTON and MUMBAI, India, Feb. 06, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Flywire Corporation (Nasdaq: FLYW) (Flywire), a global payments enablement and software company, today announced that it has partnered with State Bank of India, India’s largest public sector bank, to enable Indian payers to seamlessly and digitally pay international education-related fees in their local currency (Indian Rupees) to higher education institutions all over the world. The integration provides students and families a streamlined and completely digital experience when making high-value education payments, and helps them comply with the Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS), which are guidelines to help streamline overseas transactions and investments for residents of India.

Key Points: 
  • Flywire integrates directly into SBI’s banking platform, providing Indian students with a fully digital checkout experience for their transactions, ranging from application fees to tuition payments.
  • The partnership between Flywire and SBI provides an innovative approach to education payments and offers many benefits to students and institutions alike.
  • SBI customers can complete payments from local currency accounts to the thousands of Flywire education clients in a simple, three step process.
  • Flywire identifies the source of payments delivered to an institutions’ bank account and automatically posts each payment to the applicable student record.

Mortgage and inflation pain to ease, but only slowly: how 31 top economists see 2024

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 5, 2024

The panel draws on the expertise of leading forecasters at 28 Australian universities, think tanks and financial institutions – among them economic modellers, former Treasury, International Monetary Fund and Reserve Bank officials, and a former member of the Reserve Bank board.

Key Points: 
  • The panel draws on the expertise of leading forecasters at 28 Australian universities, think tanks and financial institutions – among them economic modellers, former Treasury, International Monetary Fund and Reserve Bank officials, and a former member of the Reserve Bank board.
  • Its forecasts paint a picture of weak economic growth, stagnant consumer spending, and a continuing per-capita recession.
  • Six of the experts surveyed expect the Reserve Bank to increase rates further in the first half of the year, while 20 expect no change and three expect a cut.
  • Read more:
    The 7 new graphs that show inflation falling back to earth

    Warwick McKibbin, a former member of the Reserve Bank board, said the board would push up rates twice more in the first half of the year as insurance against inflation before leaving them on hold.

Inflation to keep falling, but more gradually

  • Today’s Reserve Bank board meeting will consider an inflation rate that has come down faster than it expected, diving from 7.8% to 4.1% in the space of a year.
  • The newer more experimental monthly measure of inflation was just 3.4% in the year to December, only points away from the Reserve Bank’s target of 2–3%.
  • Economists Chris Richardson and Saul Eslake say while inflation will keep heading down, the decline might be slowed by supply chain pressures from the conflict in the Middle East and the boost to incomes from the tax cuts due in July.

Slower wage growth, higher unemployment

  • While the panel expects wages to grow faster than the consumer price index, it expects wages growth to slip from around 4% in 2023 to 3.8% in 2004 and 3.4% in 2025 as higher unemployment blunts workers’ bargaining power.
  • But the panel doesn’t expect much of an increase in unemployment.
  • All but two of the panel expect the unemployment rate to remain below the range of 5–6% that was typical in the decade before COVID.

Slower economic growth, per-capita recession

  • The panel expects very low economic growth of just 1.7% in 2024, climbing to 2.3% in 2025.
  • All but one of the forecasts are for economic growth below the present population growth rate of 2.4%, suggesting that the panel expects population growth to exceed economic growth for the second year running, extending Australia’s so-called per capita recession.
  • Percy Allen and Stephen Anthony assign a 75% and 70% chance to such a recession, and Warren Hogan a 50% chance.
  • Hogan said when the economic growth figures for the present quarter get released, they are likely to show Australia is in such a recession at the moment.

Weaker spending, weak investment

  • Mala Raghavan of The University of Tasmania said previous gains in income, rising asset prices and accumulated savings were being overwhelmed by high inflation and rising interest rates.
  • The panel expects non-mining investment to grow by only 5.1% in the year ahead, down from 15%, and mining investment to grow by 10.2%, down from 22%.
  • Johnathan McMenamin from Barrenjoey said private and public investment had been responsible for the lion’s share of economic growth over the past year and was set to plateau and fade as a driver of growth.

Home prices to climb, but more slowly

  • The panel expects home price growth of 4.6% in Sydney during 2024 (down from 11.4% in 2024) and 3.1% in Melbourne, down from 3.9% in 2024.
  • ANZ economist Adam Boyton said decade-low building approvals and very strong population growth should keep demand for housing high, outweighing a drag on prices from high interest rates.
  • While high interest rates have been restraining demand, they are likely to ease later in the year.

The Conversation’s Economic Panel


Click on economist to see full profile. Download the answers as XLS PDF
Peter Martin is economics editor of The Conversation AU.

LRA Corporate Releases Analysis of Australia's Economic & Interest Rate Projections

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, January 17, 2024

PERTH, AUSTRALIA, Jan. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a period marked by economic fluctuations and financial uncertainty, LRA Corporate PTY Limited , a leader in Financial Services, releases an in-depth analysis of the Australian economic climate, with a specific focus on interest rate trends and their implications.

Key Points: 
  • PERTH, AUSTRALIA, Jan. 17, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a period marked by economic fluctuations and financial uncertainty, LRA Corporate PTY Limited , a leader in Financial Services, releases an in-depth analysis of the Australian economic climate, with a specific focus on interest rate trends and their implications.
  • Jonathan Wells, Senior Financial Client Advisor at LRA Corporate , comments, "The Reserve Bank's rate hikes, while necessary to curb inflation, have had a ripple effect across the economy.
  • James Cripps, another Senior Financial Client Advisor at LRA Corporate, adds, "The property market slowdown reflects broader economic challenges.
  • LRA Corporate remains at the forefront of providing insightful and timely analysis, helping clients navigate these challenging economic times with expert advice and strategic planning.

EbixCash Payment Solutions Reports Exceptional Year-over-Year Revenue and Income Growth in Q4 2023 and Full Year of 2023

Retrieved on: 
Monday, January 8, 2024

EbixCash continued its leadership in the Foreign Exchange (Forex) arena with YOY growth of approximately 38% in 2023.

Key Points: 
  • EbixCash continued its leadership in the Foreign Exchange (Forex) arena with YOY growth of approximately 38% in 2023.
  • The last quarter of the calendar year from September to December 2023 (Q4’23) accounted for an estimated INR 144 crore of gross revenue.
  • In the year 2023, EbixCash also reported 30% YOY growth in the student outward remittance business.
  • EbixCash Payment Solutions group also reported that it continued its dominant leadership role in the Inward remittance business (MTSS) in 2023, while processing 4.4 million transactions in the calendar year 2023.