Briefs: Cuscal's new CFO, PayPal to make business loans, ASIC raids van Eyk, CAMAC abolished
Payments company Cuscal has confirmed Sean O'Donoghue as its new chief financial officer. O'Donoghue has held senior financial and management positions in the banking sector, at CBA and Westpac, and in the commercial property sector, with Abacus and Multiplex. At Westpac he led the wealth finance transformation program which bought together the St George wealth management business with the BT Financial Group. PayPal will offer online working capital loans to small business customers in Australia in October, with Australia and Britain the first regions outside the US to have this service, the AFR has reported. PayPal will make money by charging a one-off in advance fee, rather than interest. Businesses will be invited to apply for funding online, up to about 8 per cent of their yearly PayPal sales. If approved they will receive a "merchant cash advance" to their PayPal account. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has raided the Sydney office of troubled financial services firm, van Eyk, seizing files as part of a wider investigation into alleged investment breaches at its funds management division, the AFR has reported, citing "sources". ASIC declined to comment on the raids but it's understood the action coincides with close scrutiny of van Eyk by New Zealand's corporate regulator, the Financial Markets Authority. The Federal Government has released an exposure draft Bill and associated explanatory material to give effect to the 2014-15 Budget decision to abolish the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee. The decision was made in the context of the broader "Smaller and More Rational Government" reforms to reduce the number of Australian Government bodies. The exposure draft Bill will abolish CAMAC by repealing Part 9 of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001, which provides for the establishment, functions and operation of CAMAC. Submissions are due in a month.