Briefs: Westpac invests in healthcare payments, Slater and Gordon loans for sale, NRMA to offer smal
Westpac has taken a ten per cent shareholding in Inloop Pty Limited, the parent company of Lantern Pay, a cloud-based payments platform designed for use in consumer directed care programs such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, home care services, and third-party insurance and rehabilitation schemes. Westpac Institutional Bank chief executive Lyn Cobley said the deal would target the more than A$90 billion of healthcare spending across Australia currently subject to slow, inefficient manual and paper-based payment processes, which create cash flow problems for service providers. Two of Slater & Gordon's biggest lenders, National Australia Bank and Westpac Banking Group, are seeking to auction off their debt exposure in the troubled law firm, with investment bankers lining up bidders by close of business today (Thursday), reports the AFR's Street Talk. The two majors' combined exposure to Slaters' debt is worth about A$500 million, sources told Street Talk. Barclays sold its Slater & Gordon debt for 22¢ in the dollar last Friday, so NAB and Westpac could lose a combined $400 million. NRMA Business Insurance has entered into a pilot partnership with online small business lender Prospa. The deal means NRMA Business Insurance customers can access Prospa's lending services - that is, loans of A$5,000 to A$250,000 - alongside other benefits offered by the insurer, such as free online tax and legal advice. Established in 2011, Prospa has lent over $250 million to thousands of small businesses in Australia. An agreement between Myer and payments platform Afterpay will allow the department store's online customers to split their credit card payments into four equal instalments, due every fortnight. Other retailers signed up by the ASX-listed Afterpay, which claims to have "over 500,000 active customers and over 3,100 retailers" on its payments platform include Telstra, Booktopia, 2XU, Running Bare, Tarocash and Alannah Hill. National Australia Bank is overhauling its private banking division with the roles of almost 20 private bankers in doubt as NAB moves to focus more on ultra high-net-worth and high-net-worth customers, according to AFR's Street Talk section. The moves are possibly part of a strategy to segment higher quality customers from those the bank doesn't earn a lot of revenue from. The bankers in the firing line will face either redundancy, redeployment or can apply for 27 newly created roles, although possibly at a lower level, and with less customer engagement, than those jobs being cut.