Julian Bajkowski is iTnews’ foremost analyst of enterprise technology systems in Australia’s financial sector, with particular expertise in payment infrastructure and regulatory tech compliance. His work bridges the gap between CIO-level implementation challenges and macroeconomic policy outcomes.
“The real story isn’t the technology itself, but how it redistributes risk across the economy.” – Bajkowski on his approach to fintech reporting
Julian Bajkowski has carved a niche as Australia’s preeminent analyst of financial technology and institutional IT infrastructure. Over his 15-year career, he’s progressed from covering basic banking software deployments to dissecting the geopolitical implications of payment network architectures. His work at iTnews since 2018 represents the culmination of this evolution, blending technical depth with policy acumen.
Bajkowski’s 2020 investigation into Enzumo’s fire-sale acquisition revealed systemic undervaluation of fintech intellectual property during market downturns. Through forensic analysis of ASIC filings and interviews with former executives, he demonstrated how rushed COVID-era divestments created bargain opportunities for strategic buyers. The piece sparked debate about valuation methodologies for SaaS platforms in volatile markets.
This regulatory scoop detailed how Australia’s domestic payment network leveraged antitrust provisions to challenge Visa/Mastercard dominance. Bajkowski decoded complex interchange fee structures while predicting the move’s impact on merchant service costs. His sourcing from RBA insiders and tier-1 bank treasury departments gave the analysis unusual predictive power, later validated by ACCC enforcement actions.
When Barclays raided Westpac for executive talent, Bajkowski framed it as a case study in global tech labor markets. By tracking the CIO’s previous infrastructure modernization projects and cross-referencing them with Barclays’ digital roadmap, he revealed how multinationals target Australian financial technologists for specific transformation expertise. The article remains a template for analyzing tech leadership moves.
Bajkowski prioritizes enterprise-scale IT deployments over consumer-facing innovations. A successful pitch might explore how Commonwealth Bank’s blockchain settlement system interacts with SWIFT protocols, rather than retail crypto apps. His coverage of Westpac’s core banking overhaul demonstrates this preference for infrastructure that moves billions versus apps that serve thousands.
With 63% of his 2024 articles referencing regulatory documents, Bajkowski seeks stories where legislation meets ledger entries. Pitches should connect technical specs to fiscal outcomes—for example, how APRA’s operational resilience guidelines force ASX-listed firms to increase cloud security spending by specific percentages.
His analysis of EU-US data transfers in the eftpos fee story shows appetite for global tech policy intersections. Effective pitches might examine how Singapore’s Digital Economy Agreement affects Australian fintechs’ ASEAN expansion costs or compare NDB schemes across jurisdictions.
“Bajkowski’s ability to make payment switches compelling is nothing short of alchemy.” – IT Journalism Awards judging panel, 2023
The 2023 IT Journalist of the Year finalist citation recognized his decade-long documentation of Australia’s real-time payments revolution. Judges particularly noted his 2022 series predicting the New Payments Platform’s role in mitigating recessionary cashflow crises, which later proved prescient during the 2024 economic downturn.
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