Fintech
Growth of real-time payments in Australia draws fintech interest — Capital Brief
UK-based payments fintech Volt has stepped up its expansion plans in Australia, as it and other payment fintechs finally see the development of real-time account-to-account (A2A) payments.
Volt, not to be confused with failed Australian neobank Volt Bank, just appointed a regional head for Australia and New Zealand and is expanding its team. Meanwhile, other fintechs specializing in A2A transactions have also expanded their offerings.
Another UK-based fintech, Go paperlesshas partnered with insurance technology fintech ICE Insurance to satisfy a perceived niche such as cheaper and more certain insurance premium payments.
Volt’s new Australian boss, Adam Vidal, said Brief Capital that Volt’s founders had been observing developments in Australia and that the timing of the expansion reflected both the desire of international merchants to operate online in Australia and the growing maturity of the NPP real-time payments platform, particularly its PayTo feature.
“Merchants can now start focusing on actually implementing PayTo now that major institutions are on board,” he said. “It works, it’s available, it was critical to have banks, and now we’re already doing transactions.”