HACKER Q&A
📣 drekipus

Starting FinTech/becoming a card authority in Australia


I thought I would ask here because I can't seem to find the information I'm looking for. Australia is going through a "credit card fee debacle" at the moment so search is cluttered.

I want to investigate how to become a card issuer/authority without becoming a bank in Australia.

The purpose is simple: I give my customer a "credit card" to use for approved merchants. They can go use that credit card for any amount. The list of approved merchants will vary by customer.

I don't know where I can find information on doing this in Australia, and I also want to find information on how far I can get without venture capital.

  👤 GianFabien Accepted Answer ✓
Becoming a card issuer in Australia requires overcoming numerous regulatory hurdles. ARPA and ACCC are two government bodies you need to be familiar with.

I was involved in setting up a new insurance company in the late 1980s and even then you needed well connected investors as well as a top law firm to smooth the way. Credit legislation has become even more onerous since then.

Perhaps a feasible path would be to co-brand your card with Visa or MasterCard. That is how the major department stores are implementing their store cards. Both David Jones and Myer have stopped issuing their own store cards for the reasons mentioned above.

👤 edwardmp
Indeed, just find a local/regional issuer that can issue AUD cards with some kind of relayed authorization feature. This is also called co-branding. Then you don’t need any financial license yourself typically.
👤 rozenmd
Does Australia still have that insane "must have at least $10M in assets" rule for certain financial services?