5 Tips For Better Understanding Peer-to-Peer Property Lending in Australia
As a bumper year for property investment comes to a close, emerging trends towards non-bank finance in the property space gather steam heading into the new year. Developers need more funds to deliver their projects as the major banks pull back on finance. As more investors get comfortable with researching higher yielding investment opportunities, we take a look at the key things you need to know about ‘Peer-to-Peer’ (P2P) debt-style lending in the Australian property market. Don’t Chase High Returns If a debt offering is returning 18-30% and is a mezzanine type, deal chances are it is extremely risky. A developer is only paying this pain money as a […]
Media mogul-backed bank challenger close to breaking even
SocietyOne, a peer-to-peer lender that is partly owned by Rupert Murdoch, Kerry Stokes and James Packer’s companies, expects to start making profits within the next 12 to 18 months. The start-up lender has in recent years been heavily investing in marketing, technology and new staff as it seeks to establish peer-to-peer lending on Australia’s financial landscape, pinching some of the profits banks make from the $100 billion personal credit market. After a year of rapid loan growth, chief executive Jason Yetton said the lender now faced the prospect of breaking even, though this would depend on how much it invested. “We think it can reach profitability over the next 12 […]
Mortgage Choice joins forces with leading online lender Prospa
In a bid to better cater to the growing commercial needs of its customers, Mortgage Choice has added Australia’s leading online lender, Prospa, to its panel. “We are very excited to announce that we have partnered with Prospa to help us deliver a broader range of commercial lending and cash flow financing solutions to our customers,” said Mortgage Choice’s general manager of product Emma Dupont-Brown (pictured above with Prospa’s Matt Bauld). “Prospa is the leader in online small business lending, utilising their smart proprietary technology platform to quickly assess online applications for unsecured loans up to $250,000. “A significant proportion of our customers are small business owners who have very specific commercial […]
Hashching creates virtual ID system for first fully-digital loan approvals
Hashching, a website for home buyers to choose mortgage brokers, has built the first fully-digital process for home loan verification in Australia, which would allow banks to comply with strict regulations for identifying clients without having to send them to a branch. This weekend, Hashching, which has processed $2.6 billion of mortgages since launching 15 months ago, will begin the pilot for a biometric identity verification service allowing brokers on its platform to satisfy strict “know your client” (KYC) banking regulations by asking a customer on a video call to hold up a proof of identity to the camera on their computer or mobile phone. Across the banking industry, KYC […]
Fintech platform ‘wasn’t trying to disrupt’ broking industry
The CEO of a fintech platform that sparked controversy in the broker channel has said that the company never intended to disrupt the mortgage broking industry, but instead “bring innovation” to it. Speaking at a fintech event in Sydney earlier this week, Vince Turner, the founder and CEO of the digital mortgage service uno., clarified the platform’s intentions and thoughts regarding the third-party channel. Mr Turner said: “As far as the distribution of mortgages and mortgage broking, it’s an industry that I wasn’t trying to disrupt, but to bring innovation to. “We’ve already brought a wealth of innovation to the industry, and this is how [we] feel like it should […]
iSelect trials three-hour digital home loan
ASX-listed iSelect is trialling a new digital home loan process that lets home buyers get conditional approval for a home loan in three hours from multiple lenders, without needing to visit a bank or fill out paperwork. The technology is the first in Australia that digitises the home loan application process and can present offers from multiple lenders, however many of the banks offer a digital service for their own loans. Macquarie Bank, ING and Australian Finance Group are trialling iSelect’s new service, but the business has plans to do a full rollout in 2017. The new service is part of iSelect’s transition to become a “life admin” business, and […]
Afterpay and zipMoney: New instalment of old idea gains momentum
Fellow veterans of the “brown paper and string” era may recall lay-by, the instalment schemes offered by retailers before those plastic works of the devil called bank cards came along. At the risk of going all Bernard Salt on readers, the smashed avocado generation would be aghast to learn that customers of yore were required to put down a deposit on the item, but did not receive the goods until they paid the agreed instalments. What’s old is new again, and now lay-by is being reverse-engineered in the guise of point-of-sale retail intermediaries that finance “no-interest” payment instalment schemes. The key difference is they are “buy now, pay later” schemes […]
Prospa takes first place in Smart50 Awards
Prospa took out first place at the Smart50 Awards in Melbourne last night. The Awards recognise Australia’s top 50 fastest growing SMEs and were dominated by fintechs and retailers. Prospa was awarded first place with incredible growth of more than 1000% over the past three years. “We are thrilled to be named #1 in Australia,” said Beau Bertoli, Joint CEO of Prospa. “Winning demonstrates that we understand the finance needs of small businesses. However this is just the beginning of our journey. We’ll continue to innovate and create ground breaking finance experiences to help Australian small businesses succeed.” “We’re the leading online lender to small business […]
