Briefs: NAB partners with CrowdStrike, Scotpac gets into payroll, Zip sheds customers, Suncorp hybri 17 April 2024 3:01AM John Kavanagh NAB, Suncorp NAB chief security officer Sandro Bucchianeri NAB has formed a partnership with cyber security company CrowdStrike and is offering its SME customers a year’s free access to the CrowdStrike Falcon Go service. NAB chief security officer Sandro Bucchianeri said in a statement: “The number of cyber attacks impacting small businesses continues to grow year on year and our research tells us SMEs are one of the least cyber prepared sectors.” Business lender Scotpac has partnered with payroll solutions company APositive and will pitch a range of services to businesses in the recruitment and labour hire sector. Scotpac will offer APositive’s payroll processing service to clients in those sectors and will promote APositive services through its broker channel. Buy now pay later provider Zip Co continues to shed customers as it tightens its risk settings in pursuit of sustainable profitability. Customer numbers of 6 million at the end of the March quarter were down 2.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter and down 2.9 per cent over 12 months. Transaction numbers were also down. Revenue was down quarter-on-quarter but up over 12 months, especially in the Americas. Credit losses, as a proportion of transaction value, were steady during the March quarter at 1.3 per cent. Suncorp Group has launched an issue of additional tier 1 securities, Capital Notes 5, seeking A$300 million or more and with pricing expected to be between 280 and 300 basis points over the three-month bank bill swap rate. The first call date is June 2030. The last hybrid issuer was ANZ, which priced its $1.7 billion issue, ANZ Capital Notes 9, at a margin of 290 bps. In November, Westpac issued Capital Notes 10 at a margin of 310 bps.
