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Oliver Buchannon
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.


Meta’s $10B blind spot for illegal tobacco and gangland payments

Meta’s $10B blind spot for illegal tobacco and gangland payments

Facebook and Instagram have become a digital shopfront for criminal tobacco gangs and the payment platforms, including Stripe and PayPal, that enable their operations – all delivered by Australia Post.

Digital & Online

+1

Platform trap: Captured SMEs exposed to card fee shock

Platform trap: Captured SMEs exposed to card fee shock

After announcing a surcharge ban on both credit and debit, the RBA’s remedy for small businesses to avoid card fee shock was to shop around for cheaper payments options. With just 176 days to run until the 1 October deadline, this simplistic economist view ignores just how deeply platform players like Xero, MYOB, Stripe, Square and Shopify have embedded themselves into Aussie businesses.

Fintech

+1

"The fees don't disappear": voices calling foul on Australia's surcharge ban

"The fees don't disappear": voices calling foul on Australia's surcharge ban

Over the past week, commentary from across industry - Brad Kelly, the co-founder of the Independent Payments Forum (IPF), John Arnott, Director of AMP Bank Go, Jason Bryce, a Melbourne-based financial journalist and founder of CashWelcome.org, and Dr Fei Gao, Lecturer from the University of Sydney Business School - has highlighted the level of concern about the RBA’s decision during a period of high inflation and economic uncertainty.

Cash

+4

As Stripe invests in Sydney Hub, is CBA about to eat its lunch?

As Stripe invests in Sydney Hub, is CBA about to eat its lunch?

While the increasingly pervasive US payments platform Stripe was busy announcing a new Sydney engineering hub in early March, Australia's biggest bank was quietly assembling the parts to compete with it head-on.

Digital & Online

+2

Tokenisation is coming, but Australia's still got a lot of work to do: RBA

Tokenisation is coming, but Australia's still got a lot of work to do: RBA

Brad Jones laid out a roadmap for tokenised money and assets at the Australian Payments Plus Beyond Tomorrow conference. The message to industry: we've kicked the tyres, we know what works, the clock is ticking and we have a lot to do.

Regulation

+1

Cyclone Narelle exposes Australia's cashless fragility

Cyclone Narelle exposes Australia's cashless fragility

Cyclone Narelle ripped through Cape York and slammed into the Northern Territory, affecting dozens of remote communities scattered across the Top End, including their ability to buy anything at all.

Cash

+1

Pay.com.au's new CTO wants to turn $4.2 trillion in “dead payments” into rewards

Pay.com.au's new CTO wants to turn $4.2 trillion in “dead payments” into rewards

Dee Kulkarni on scaling a $633 million Australian fintech into the US, why indecision is the only bad decision, and the budget risk nobody's ignoring.

Fintech

+1

RBA confirms an expired certificate took down Australia's payments settlement backbone

RBA confirms an expired certificate took down Australia's payments settlement backbone

The RBA's post-incident report on the 27 January RITS outage reveals an uncomfortable truth: the plumbing that moves billions through Australia's financial system was felled by a forgotten digital credential.

Regulation

+1

Stablecoin transactions pay the toll with Mastercard and Visa making sure of it

Stablecoin transactions pay the toll with Mastercard and Visa making sure of it

Mastercard and Visa are building the tollbooth for stablecoin, one acquisition and partnership at a time.

Digital & Online

+1

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

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

+1

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

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

+2

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

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

+1

Missed deadline on RBA outage review – the system keeps breaking

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

+2

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

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

+3

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

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

+1

Inside Banking Circle’s play to reshape payments and lead stablecoin down under

Inside Banking Circle’s play to reshape payments and lead stablecoin down under

With a proven euro stablecoin already in circulation, Banking Circle is laying the groundwork for what could become Australia’s most significant bank-backed digital currency infrastructure - arriving at precisely the moment regulators are finally writing the rules.

Digital & Online

+2

The $2 Billion scheme fee black box

The $2 Billion scheme fee black box

A marathon day of parliamentary testimony revealed a payments system where nobody admits to being dominant, nobody can fully explain where the money goes, and Australia’s small businesses are caught in the crossfire between banks, card schemes, and big tech.

Merchant Service Fees

+2

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