VIAINVEST blog

Australia’s profile for fintech is rising, evidenced by a trend of greater investments and more startups jockeying for position in the market.

A record AUD 656 million poured into Australia’s fintech segment in 2016, three times more than the prior year, according to KPMG. Performance bucked the trend of global fintech investments, which fell by almost 50 percent to nearly AUD 25 billion during the same period. Meanwhile, about 16 percent of all Aussie start-ups represent fintech. Continue reading Australia – the Latest Hotbed for Fintech and P2P Startups

While transferring money between banks in the same country is usually free (or close to it), consumers sending money to a bank in another country are often faced with high fees and hidden charges. It doesn’t make sense to make regular small deposits and withdrawals to investment services in another country if you are faced with double digit fees. Fortunately, fintech startups such as CurrencyFair and Transferwise have come on leaps and bounds in recent years and forcing the money transfer industry to look carefully at costs. Continue reading How Low-Cost Money Exchange Services are Making Cross-Border Investing Easier

Within the investment portfolio theory, there are two key types of investment: fixed income investments and equity investments. Investors looking to create a balanced portfolio for long term returns should have an understanding of the relative advantages of both and allocate their funds according to their risk appetite and goals. Continue reading Fixed Income Investing Versus Equity Investing

The UK has become a key market for peer-to-peer lending, giving investors more and more reasons to flock to this rising asset class. Indeed marketplace lending is making its way more into the mainstream, evidenced by a widening of support from regulators coupled with greater opportunity in the equity markets on the horizon and a rising opportunity for tax-free returns. Continue reading UK P2P Lending Matures Into a Key Market

Have you ever wanted to live a life of financial freedom: traveling, spending time with your family and working for the good of the local community? Perhaps you’ve come across books like ‘The Four-Hour Work Week’ or ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ and you also dream of doing something similar. The common denominator with guides to a financially free lifestyle is building up a passive income: reducing the reliance on working a traditional job to pay the bills. Continue reading How to make a passive income online

Diversification is defined as the action of making or becoming more diverse or varied.  So why is diversification one of the most important words in peer-to-peer lending?  To understand this, we need to understand the underlying risks or peer-to-peer lending. Continue reading Benefits of investment diversification

Investors in peer to peer lending are not always aware of the types of loans they are investing in on different platforms. Often, investors trust the platform – Viainvest, Zopa, Twino, etc. – rather than make a conscious choice over the types of borrowers they lend to. This article breaks down the different types of loans typically offered on peer to peer lending sites. Continue reading Comparing Peer to Peer Loan Types

There are not many industries that would want regulation imposed on them and fewer that would actively lobby for that to be the case, but the peer-to-peer lending industry is certainly an exception.

Why does the peer-to-peer lending industry want to be regulated?  There are several reasons for this, but the foremost was that as peer-to-peer lending was unregulated, it was perceived to be very high risk, a complex financial instrument and open to large-scale fraud.  Peer-to-peer lending was niche and lacked the appeal to lenders who were not sophisticated investors or high net-worth individuals. Continue reading Why P2P lending industry needs and wants to be regulated? Example of the United Kingdom