Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Alex Zaharov-Reutt is the Technology Reporter for PayDay News. Since 1998, he has appeared as a technology expert across Australia's free-to-air and pay TV networks, major news and current affairs programs, and commercial and public radio. He currently appears as tech expert on ABC Hobart and South East (Bega) radio, is a guest on other ABC Radio stations, hosts a weekly show on Radio 2CC Canberra, runs his own YouTube channel and is Technology Editor for iTWire.com.

Will Swift’s deal with Australia’s big banks fix cross-border payments?

Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB, and Westpac have joined a new Swift framework promising faster, cheaper, more transparent international payments. It's a big coalition, a polished launch, and a genuinely ambitious global rollout. It's also a story with some conspicuous gaps.

Digital & Online

With scammers riding roughshod on its network, Telstra teams with banks to catch mules

Telstra just announced it's teaming up with ANZ, NAB and Westpac to hunt money mules – people who shuffle stolen cash through their bank accounts on behalf of criminal networks. But why can’t the telco block dodgy callers and messages riding the network in the first place, like Samsung does?

Digital & Online

Australia's $24 billion digital payments bonanza has a $23 billion problem

A new industry report promises a once-in-a-generation digital finance windfall. The maths, the infrastructure, and the Reserve Bank's own admissions tell a different story.

Digital & Online

Missed deadline on RBA outage review – the system keeps breaking

Australia built a cashless economy on infrastructure that can't stay online. The Reserve Bank knows it. The telcos know it. And now, after its own system crashed because someone forgot to renew a certificate, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has missed its own deadline to explain what went wrong.

Digital & Online

Blended rates, fintech carve-outs and a trillion-dollar gatekeeper: who really pays?

Australia's parliamentary payments inquiry stripped back the complexity to expose three uncomfortable truths: small businesses are subsidising the system, fintechs want exemptions that would make it worse, and Apple won't even say what it charges.

Fintech

No new pay Apps on iPhone NFC! But Apple says Aussie developers are “well down the path”

While “numerous” developers have been allowed to work on Apple’s prized NFC chip in Australia, the tech giant has told a parliamentary inquiry that a new payments app is yet to emerge.

Cards