Peer to Peer lending increasingly popular in Australia
Australian investors and borrowers are increasingly adopting peer to peer lending platforms according to the results of survey undertaken by ASIC. The results of the survey suggest that as much as $300 million of personal and business loans were underwritten by peer to peer lenders over the course of the last fiscal year. That represents a doubling in the amount that was lent on such platforms during the 2015/2016 financial year. Peer to peer will continue to grow John Price ASIC Commissioner says the results of the survey suggest that growth of such lending marketplaces will continue to grow as Australians seek out the best deals and interest rates on […]
Digital bank startup Xinja can now offer housing loans, and getting one will take ‘about 20 minutes’
Digital bank startup Xinja is planning to offer home loans soon after winning an Australian Credit Licence from ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments Commission). It’s an important step forward for Xinja which is raising money under new equity crowdfunding legislation and aims to become a full-service digital bank built in Australia but without the legacy structures and costs associated with more traditional financial services companies. “This allows use to give mortgages, to lend and give credit,” Xinja chief executive Eric Wilson told Business Insider. “We are raising our very first mortgages in late March early April. By May-June we will bring our first fully digital product online. “We are bringing […]
Funding.com.au links borrowers to Real Estate-backed loans
The Benzinga Global Fintech Awards are a yearly showcase of the best and brightest in fintech. In preparation for its biggest installment yet in May 2018, we’re profiling the companies competing for the BZ Awards. Our next feature is on Funding.com.au. What does your company do? What unique problem does it solve? Jack O’Reilly, managing director: Funding.com.au is a financial technology platform that provides real-estate secured loans to borrowers, and attractive mortgage investments to investors. The company currently assists borrowers seeking short to medium term mortgages through its end-to-end online loan application process. As the direct lender, it can assist borrowers with a quick, easy and cost effective settlement – […]
What’s coming for Fintech lending in 2018
Continued Growth The alternative finance industry had a strong period of growth last year as borrowers become increasingly aware that there are financing options outside of the banks. The 2nd Asia Pacific Region Alternative Finance Industry Report conducted by The University of Cambridge in conjunction with Monash University and Tsinghua University released in September 2017 showed 53.3% growth from 2015 to 2016 in the Australia Alternative Finance market. The largest market sub segment was balance sheet business lending, followed by peer-to-peer (Marketplace) consumer lending, and invoice trading. Discussions with lenders across both consumer and SME sectors indicate higher growth rates for 2016-2017. The loan enquiry levels across the sector have […]
The fintech revolution: who now assesses your personal loan application?
In an age of rapid technological disruption, Aussie banking practices are constantly changing and there is now a piece of technology that could be responsible for assessing your creditworthiness when you apply for a personal loan. In an age of rapid technological disruption, Aussie banking practices are constantly changing and there is now a piece of technology that could be responsible for assessing your creditworthiness when you apply for a personal loan. Personal loan provider, Harmoney, kicked off the new year by teaming up with DataRobot, an automated machine learning platform, in the hopes of improving both the speed and accuracy of its application process. “With our deployment of DataRobot, […]
Westpac invests $25m more in Uno in mortgage broking play
Westpac Banking Corp has doubled down on the digital mortgage broker Uno Home Loans, investing another $25 million to ramp up the start-up’s brand marketing and sales teams in a deal that reflects a concerted drive into the broking industry by the nation’s second-largest lender. Westpac is keen to win some share of the $2 billion-plus in annual revenue which flows to mortgage brokers, who currently advise on nearly half of the $380 billion in mortgages written each year. Westpac now owns around 81 per cent of Uno, which wants to win a 10 per cent share of the highly fragmented broking market over the next 10 years. “The broking […]
Marketplace lender reveals big plans for broker channel
MoneyPlace CEO Stuart Stoyan is banking on Liberty’s broker relationships and funding capabilities to execute an ambitious strategy for the widespread distribution of personal loans through the third-party channel. Few marketplace lenders have been able to successfully crack into the Australian broker market. Yet peer-to-peer lenders, fintech players and alternative online funders offering personal or SME loans are now a well-established feature of the Australian lending landscape. According to KPMG, Australia has overtaken Japan as the second-largest alternative finance market in the Asia-Pacific region, growing by 53 per cent in one year to US$609 million ($774 million) in 2016. While home loans are the mainstay for mortgage brokers, Liberty CEO […]
Liberty buys MoneyPlace in personal loan push
Non-bank lender Liberty has purchased MoneyPlace, in a deal that will provide the marketplace lender with funding flexibility to target rivals SocietyOne and RateSetter along with the personal loan books of the big four banks. The acquisition suggests brokers, which currently facilitate half of all mortgages, will play a more influential role selling personal loans given Liberty’s deep broking relationships. It also suggests risk-based pricing of personal lending will become more common, given MoneyPlace and the other P2P lenders are willing to undercut bank interest rates for high quality borrowers. Liberty and MoneyPlace have not disclosed the price tag for the Melbourne-based platform, which has been operating for 18 months […]
