Briefs: finTech 'CreditMe" to launch, APRA 'streamlines' credit card risk standards, ANZ gets picky
CreditME, launching today, is the latest in what the AFR is reporting is "an explosion of investment banker-led fintechs" targeting the small businesses traditionally treated with disdain by the banks. CreditMe - founded by Adam Welsh, a former M&A and debt banker at Origin Capital Group and Goldman Sachs - is offering a sort of broker role. It gives them a credit rating and then advises them on which lenders would be the best for them - be it traditional bank or online unsecured lenders. APRA has revoked its Prudential Standard APS 240, with effect from 2 May 2016, as the relevant principles it covers - the risk management of credit card activities - are now captured elsewhere in other regulations. "The revocation of APS 240 does not loosen the standards of credit card risk management expected … of ADIs that engage in these activities, but rather forms part of the process of streamlining the prudential framework," the prudential regulator warned in a letter addressed "To all authorised deposit-taking institutions," dated 3 May 2016. Discussion of when ANZ's next finance chief will be unveiled was left until literally the last moment at the bank's half-year results briefing yesterday. New CEO Shayne Elliott, whose elevation from group CFO into the top job created the vacancy, responded: "Of all the things I'm going to do in my first three to six months, this may well be the most important. We need someone who's going to be a terrific CFO, and who's also going to augment my leadership team with new skills, so I'm taking a careful approach." Then he cut to Graham Hodges, suggesting ANZ's deputy CEO might want to stay on as acting CFO, before conceding the real decision "is not very far away."