Financial Services Talking Points | 22-09-2016

FinancialsTPB

In todays talking points: Chinese online-style shopping platform selling Australian property increases in popularity; Australian merchants increasingly accepting UnionPay’s Mobile QuickPass; Government Figures for Chinese ODI Released


Chinese online-style shopping platform selling Australian property increases in popularity

China’s Fosun Group has set up Estarhome.com, a new online shopping-style platform for Chinese investors looking to invest their money in properties. Australian homes have been a popular purchase amongst Chinese investors due to the country’s healthy economic growth and stable political system. The company currently has over 60 Australian projects for sale, with most of them being new apartments like Mirvac’s St Leonards Square project. Chinese buyers already account for around two-thirds of the foreign investment in Australia’s property market. The company has sold 50 Australian properties for about $30 million since only March this year.

Source: The Australian

Australian merchants increasingly accepting UnionPay’s Mobile QuickPass

Half of all stores in Australia accepting UnionPay now support payment via Quickpass. Australia is now the leading country with the largest number of QuickPass accepting POS terminals outside of mainland China with about 270,000 terminals since last June. Merchants accepting mobile QuickPass in Australia include Myer, UNIQLO and Harvey Norman. This comes after estimates from Tourism Research Australia that China will surpass New Zealand and become Australia’s largest source of overseas tourists from next year.

Source: China Money Network

Government Figures for Chinese ODI Released 

Outbound direct investment by China’s financial institutions increased 26 percent in 2015 to $24.4 billion, government data revealed on Thursday. Of the total ODI, 90 percent was invested in overseas financial institutions with the rest invested in non-financial firms, the report stated. Big Chinese insurers such as Ping An Insurance Group of China and Anbang Insurance Group have been aggressive in making overseas investment in recent years, and have received encouragement in this from the government in pursuit of its “One Belt, One Road” program.

Source: Reuters