SocietyOne hits $600M in loans after record holiday season
Australia’s leading marketplace lender, SocietyOne, has sped past $600 million in loan originations after a record holiday period, with $64.9 million in total originations over the past three months, compared to $39.5 million over the same three months last year. The milestone comes just six months after the appointment of Mark Jones as CEO, who oversaw the launch of a broker channel in June, an improved credit assessment process in July, a marketing campaign beginning September, and an improved online customer quote and application experience from October. “We are thrilled to be growing so strongly as it’s a sure sign that Australians are increasingly turning away from one-size-fits-all options and […]
Fintech reveals $250m funding boost
In a bid to compete head on with the traditional banks, a fintech lender has secured an additional $250m to fund Australia’s small businesses. In addition to the new funding, Moula has extended its loan terms from 24 to 36 months and doubled its maximum loan value from $250,000 to $500,000. Pricing starts from 15.95% APR and is said to be “unprecedented” in the online unsecured business lending space. CEO Aris Allegos said, “Until now, online business lenders have competed with banks on speed, ease of application and customer service. However, competition based on pricing has been largely absent. “Injecting a quarter-of-a billion dollars into Australia’s businesses and making our […]
SocietyOne: Peer-to-peer lending offers a “better deal than the banks”
CEO Mark Jones reflects on six months in charge of Australia’s biggest peer-to-peer lender. SocietyOne became the first Australian peer-to-peer lender to cross $500 million in total lending in August last year. Since then, the company has enjoyed 6 months of consecutive record months for lending and is now about to pass the $600 million lending mark. After taking over as CEO in June 2018, Mark Jones has seen Australia’s first peer-to-peer lender go from strength to strength, and it remains on track to reach break-even point in March. “Over the last six months, we’ve really taken the business forward. We’re probably writing triple the business today that we were […]
SME fund legislation will “fill the void”
The government introduced the legislation last week to establish a $2bn securitisation fund to help small and medium businesses get better access to finance.
Shadow banks swoop as five lenders quit sub-prime home loans
Digital home-loan lender Tic:Toc is launching into the sub-prime mortgage market targeting small business owners as five other lenders quit the sector claiming “industry changes”. Tic:Toc’s move follows stakes being taken in the online lender by Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia and La Trobe Financial, which is part of the US investment giant Blackstone Group. Other major lenders, including Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Bank of Queensland, pulled out of the sector to be replaced by regulation-lite shadow banks, including Pepper Money and Resimac. Adelaide Bank, Perth-based Bluebay Home Loans and Resolve Finance’s mortgage division are also quitting the sub-prime sector blaming changing marketing and funding conditions. The move comes amid […]
How the Banking Royal Commission will affect the auto-financing industry
The recent release of the banking royal commission’s interim report has highlighted that responsible lending practices need to be extended to the auto-finance industry. The implications of this for entities making car loans is significant as 90% of all car sales are currently arranged through finance, many of which have fallen short of responsible lending provisions. According to the report it is not enough just use ‘likelihood of default’ as a measure of loan suitability. Prior to making an assessment on whether a loan is suitable, the licensee must now take a number of steps to ensure responsible lending provisions are met. These necessary steps include: “making reasonable inquiries about […]
Big lending fall shows businesses need to investigate crowdfunding options
A significant drop in lending activity during December has illustrated the need for business owners to investigate other ways raise growth funds, including crowdfunding, according to a major Australian crowdfunding platform. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures which were released today, the value of lending commitments to businesses fell by 9.7 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms in the month of December 2018. This included commercial finance commitments dropping by 9.8 per cent and lease finance falling by 5.7 per cent. The fall in business lending outstripped the reduction in household lending commitments, which went down 4.4 per cent. In the year to December 2018, business lending commitments […]
UBank launches AI mortgage application assistant
A new artificial intelligence-powered mortgage application assistant will soon be able to answer customer questions in natural language, UBank has announced. UBank has revealed that its new AI-powered digital home loan application assistant, called Mia (short for My Interactive Agent), will start answering more than 300 common customer questions in real time from late February. The NAB subsidiary, which worked with FaceMe to develop Mia, said customers will be able to converse in natural language with the AI assistant via their desktop or mobile devices at any time about their mortgage applications. For example, customers could ask about what the variable rate of a loan is or what classifies as […]
