False promises and the story of Xinja s decision to exit banking
False promises and the story of Xinja s decision to exit banking
Xinja burst onto the scene three years ago promising to shake up the banking industry. But now it s exiting banking, so what went wrong?
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Eighteen months before fallen neobank Xinja froze its customers’ bank accounts and returned its banking licence, it moved into a flash new office on Sydney’s King Street.
The iconic building was once home to Facebook’s headquarters, and former employees say Xinja’s founders wanted to project the company’s image as being on par with the world’s largest technology companies.
Despite admitting to millions of compliance breaches that lead to the largest ever corporate fine in Australian corporate history, the corporate watchdog has decided against taking individual action against Westpac executives.
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Challenger has taken a significant step in terms of expanding into the term deposit market and therefore expanding its retirement income offering via the acquisition of MyLIfeMyFinance Limited from Catholic Super (now known as MyLifeMyMoney Suprannuation Fund).
Challenger announced the transaction to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) today declaring that the acquisition would see it holding an authorised deposit-taking institution license.
“The acquisition is highly strategic and provides Challenger the opportunity to significantly expand its secure retirement income offering,” the announcement said. “Following the acquisition, Challenger will hold an Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) licence, providing access to Australia’s $1 trillion term deposit market.”
Xinja customers fled neobank as crash loomed
Dec 22, 2020 â 10.35am
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Xinja customers were quickly clawing money out of the failed neobank in the lead up to its decision to pull up stumps and hand back its banking licence last week.
Founder and chief executive Eric Wilson has been focused on the safe and quick return of deposits to customers, a Xinja spokesman says.Â
Xinja confirmed it held about $250 million in deposits last week when it ordered customers to transfer their savings to other financial institutions. That was down from about $457 million in deposits at the end of June, according to a disclosure on Xinja s website.
Dai Xianglong
Dai Xianglong, a former governor of the People s Bank of China and former head of the National Social Security Fund, is calling for allocating a proportion of assets confiscated from corrupt officials and a proportion of land transfer fees to replenish pension reserves.
At a pension reserves forum hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on December 19, Dai said the amount of assets confiscated from corrupt officials could total billions of yuan.
In recent years, with the increasing number of elderly in China, the sustainability of the pension fund is under threat. In 2019, the balance of social insurance funds nationwide was Rmb585.486 billion, and after fiscal subsidies were excluded, there was a deficit for the seventh consecutive year.