Lender looks to triple growth through broker channel
A marketplace lender has surpassed its target for loan origination through the broker channel, and is aiming to triple growth through the third-party channel in the next year. Speaking to The Adviser, the CEO of personal loan provider SocietyOne, Mark Jones, reflected on the success of the brand over the 2018 calendar year, particularly referencing its renewed relationship with brokers. In June of this year, the company established its first broker partnership and set itself a target of seeing up to $4 million of loans from the channel by the end of 2018. However, Mr Jones outlined the strength of the third-party, noting that this channel’s originations had already surpassed […]
Cashflow group appointment to help expansion
A cashflow finance group has appointed a new manager to oversee operations as it continues to grow Australia-wide. Australian Invoice Finance (AIF), which launched in August 2017, has hired Chris Allchin as senior manager to set up its Victorian and Tasmanian operations and spearhead sales growth in both states. Allchin, who is based in Melbourne, has 11 years’ experience in SME finance, most recently at FactorONE, where he was a business development manager for four and a half years, focusing on management of broker relationships and potential leads in Victoria. He said he was extremely pleased to be joining AIF after a refreshing six-month break from professional services. He added, […]
Fintech joins express loans partnership
A digital mortgage service fintech has announced it will join a partnership to create fast, paperless home loans. Tic:Toc and Bendigo Bank announced recently they would be teaming up to offer “express” loans. Now, legal fintech LeadPoint, which specialises in providing automated home loan documentation, has announced it would join them. The group has generated more than 50,000 home loan contracts through its platform since it launched in 2013. LeadPoint’s involvement in Bendigo Bank Express is the next phase of LeadPoint’s partnership with Tic:Toc loans, which already offers ‘webmortgages’ loan documentation as part of its instant home loan assessment and approval platform. LeadPoint uses its proprietary platform to produce digital […]
The sacrifices of running a small business in Australia
A new YouGov study of small businesses in Australia has found the lengths that small businesses owners go to make a success of their ventures. The research, commissioned by Australia’s number one online lender to small business, Prospa, shows that more than half (54%) of small business owners spend 6-7 days a week on their business, with one in four (28%) working 7 days a week. Even when not at work, small business owners continue to be engrossed, with almost three-quarters (73%) agreeing that concerns around their business prevent them from relaxing during the holiday period. Overall, nine in ten small business owners feel distracted by work in other areas of their […]
Fintech drops interest rates
A fintech has announced rate cuts across its investor home loans, including a 32 basis point reduction to its variable interest only product. Tic:Toc said the decision comes at a time of falling investor lending. The group has noticed a 33% drop in investment lending in the last quarter to November 2018. According to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the value of investment loans has also dropped by more than 20% over the last year and investment housing commitments fell by 0.9%. Tic:Toc founder and CEO, Anthony Baum, said now may be the opportune time for investors to secure a competitive rate via Tic:Toc’s digital platform. He said, […]
APAC Alternative Finance report shows impressive growth
Australia is second only to China in market volume. The alternative finance industry continues to thrive according to the 3rd Asia Pacific Region Alternative Finance Industry Report by KPMG and the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) released this week. The global fintech sector has seen $117 billion invested in the last year, with $28 billion invested in Asia Pacific alone. Across the region, over 100,000 small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) used alternative finance in 2017 and SMEs accounted for 61% of all alternative finance volume. The Australian market was 2nd only to China for the 3rd year running, raising over $1.14 billion in 2017, an increase of 88% on […]
Digitisation of loan variations ‘more important than ever’
The renewed focus on responsible lending has brought into focus the need for lenders to digitise the loan variation process for brokers, a technology sales director has said. Speaking to Mortgage Business, NextGen.Net’s sale director Tony Carn said that more lenders needed to focus on offering digital loan variations in order to “empower brokers to actually look after customer transactions on an ongoing basis”. Mr Carn noted that lenders had historically focused on digital loan applications for new loans but often neglected similar offerings for variations to existing loans – such as switching from interest-only to principal and interest repayments, moving from a fixed rate to a variable rate, the […]
Home loan fintech raises $25m
A fintech start-up is celebrating a $25million raise as it continues on its pathway to becoming Australia’s “most innovative home loan provider”. Athena Home Loans, which is still in its pilot phase, has closed its most recent Series B raise led by Square Peg Capital. Industry super fund Hostplus and venture firm AirTree also joined the round, taking the group’s total capital raised to date to $45m. The Series B raise comes six months after the company announced a Series A fund raise led by Macquarie Bank and Square Peg Capital and three months after announcing a strategic partnership with Resimac Group. Powered by Australia’s first cloud native digital mortgage […]
