China International Import Expo: Australian fintech start-up aims to improve cross-border payments

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An Australian financial technology start-up is one of the companies that will be taking part in the expo. The company specializes in cross border payment systems. It is hoping to capitalize on the increasing need for financial technology services to profit from a rapidly evolving industry. CGTN's Greg Navarro reports.

While most startup businesses are built on ideas - Co-founder Lucy Liu says Airwallex was created in part, on the experiences of some of her business partners.

LUCY LIU COO AND CO-FOUNDER, AIRWALLEX "Two of the guys started a cafe so they started importing goods from China, paper cups, packaging all of those things and we realized the amount of fees and just the whole process is very very inefficient."

The traditionally complicated system of cross border payments became the focus here, along with the use of financial technologies to make the process more user-friendly.

STEVEN DEGLAS COUNTRY MANAGER, AIRWALLEX "What we are trying to do is bring down those barriers by offering people a product that offers people to make cross border payments at a fraction of the price, very transparent fees and very effective and fast."

Melbourne-based Airwallex is part of a growing number of financial technology companies or fintechs here in Australia, that experts say are playing an increasing role in the financial services industry.

CHRISTOPH BREIDBACH LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE "Fintech companies are digital, they address the needs of customers in a quick, easy and ultimately cheaper way."

GREG NAVARRO MELBOURNE "There are a number of factors influencing Australia's financial industry at the moment including a lack of consumer confidence in banks, their slowness to adapt to change, and changing consumer behavior."

University of Melbourne lecturer Christoph Breidbach says the combination of those factors has helped to create new opportunities for fintech startups.

CHRISTOPH BREIDBACH LECTURER, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE "The big retail banks, the industry incumbents have not passed on any potential cost savings that we can these days achieve through information technology to customers so that as a new market entrant you are able to enter a very lucrative market space and make a lot of money by providing better services to customers."

Since officially launching in 2015, Liu says the company has turned its focus to Asia, and China in particular where up to 80% of Airwallex's clients are based.

LUCY LIU COO AND CO-FOUNDER, AIRWALLEX "When people look at Australian importing/exporting they tend to look at dairy and the more traditional space."

But Liu says technology is also becoming a growing export - and she's hoping to capitalize by creating a niche that also services that sector of the economy.

Greg Navarro, CGTN, Melbourne.