Briefs: Suncorp issues senior unsecured debt, management reshuffle at Mint Wireless, Moody's confirm
Suncorp Bank has issued A$750 million of senior unsecured debt, priced at 110 basis points over the three-month bank bill swap rate. The floating rate bonds have a five-year maturity. It is Suncorp's first senior unsecured term transaction in the Australian market this year. The bank said 75 investors participated in the transaction. Mobile payments company Mint Wireless has appointed a new chief executive and a new chairman. The new CEO is Robin Khuda, who has an IT and telecommunications background. Mint's co-founder and current CEO, Alex Teoh, moves to the role of executive chairman. The current chairman, Terry Cuthbertson, will remain on the board as an independent non-executive director. These changes follow the release of a financial report for the December half, in which the auditor said there was "material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the entity's ability to continue as a going concern". Moody's Investors Service has confirmed Bank of Queensland's long-term rating at A3, with a stable outlook, following BOQ's announcement on Friday that it had bought an A$2.4 billon loan portfolio from Investec Bank (Australia). "BOQ's proposed equity raising through an entitlement offer will ensure that BOQ's capital ratios remain strong," Moody's said. Australia's first bitcoin ATM opens today. The machine, operated by ABA Technology, will allow customers to withdraw cash from their bitcoin wallets and purchase bitcoins for cash. The ATM is located in the Westfield shopping central in central Sydney. Today the company will announce plans for more bitcoin ATMs. Commonwealth Bank of Australia's ASB has announced plans to run a pilot for its PayTag system of contactless payments ahead of a full launch in the first quarter of this year. ASB describes PayTag as a Visa PayWave sticker containing an ASB contactless chip. The sticker is designed to be put on the back of a mobile phone and used with contactless terminals in the same way as a PayWave credit or debit card. New Zealand-based recurring payments provider Transaction Services Group (TSG) has bought British based direct debit billing provider Harlands Group for an undisclosed sum. TSG trades as Debitsuccess in New Zealand and Australia and specialises in arranging direct debits for gym owners and their customers. TSG said the acquisition, when combined with the purchase of Britain's DFC last year, would see TSG collecting NZ$2 billion in payments annually across two million customers in Britain and Australasia. Westpac New Zealand has announced the completion of "proof of concept testing" to allow fingerprint scanning as a login for mobile banking access on the new Samsung Galaxy S5 mobile phone. Westpac NZ said it was a world first for banking.