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 […]
Afterpay’s US foray carries high expectations
Afterpay Touch Group ((APT)) continues to attract investors’ attention as a rapidly growing fintech that has established itself as the market leader in ‘buy now, receive now, pay later’ finance for both online and instore shoppers. Afterpay recently announced a strategic partnership with experienced tech-focused US venture capital firm Matrix Capital Partners, which will invest in and advise on the Australian company’s US expansion plans. Afterpay IPO-ed in 2016 and in June 2017 merged with another listed fintech, Touchcorp, to form Afterpay Touch Group. The company’s deferred payment product allows shoppers to make purchases without interest charges, up-front fees or loan application forms. Consumers typically pay off these ‘reverse laybuys’ […]
Bank disrupter Prospa readies first pitch to fund managers
Privately-owned small business lender Prospa will start its search for new investors in coming weeks, when it fronts local and offshore fund managers ahead of a planned initial public offering. It’s understood Macquarie Capital and UBS’s equities desks have been booking fundies to meet Prospa management in Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Hong Kong during the first week of February, for a non-deal roadshow. Prospa’s expected to be pitched as the first true major bank disrupter in small business lending. It’s expected to tell fund managers it is the biggest unsecured lender to small business and also the biggest online lender to small business, with loan originations of more than $500 million. The meetings come ahead of […]
The everyday Aussie is increasingly choosing a peer to peer personal loan
Peer to peer lending cuts out the middleman (the banks) allowing everyday Aussies to both invest and borrow from each other through a regulated platform.
Bitcoin forks: inside the latest craze to hit the cryptocurrency market
Bitcoin God arrived last month. Bitcoin Pizza was delivered in January. Bitcoin Private’s issuance date is… still a secret. They’re just a few of the growing stable of so-called forks – a type of spinoff in which developers clone Bitcoin’s software, release it with a new name, a new coin and possibly a few new features. Often, the idea is to capitalise on the public’s familiarity with Bitcoin to make some serious money, at least virtually. Some 19 Bitcoin forks came out last year – but up to 50 more could happen this year, according to Lex Sokolin, global director of fintech strategy at Autonomous Research. Ultimately, the number could […]
Lendi taps investors in fresh capital raising call
Online mortgage broker Lendi, which is backed by investors including Macquarie Group, has completed its latest round of capital raising. Street Talk understands Lendi last month ruled off a $25 million capital raise which was oversubscribed and supported by some existing shareholders, sophisticated investors and a number of blue-chip Australian institutions. The company is seeking to take a bigger slice of the local mortgage market after accounting for about 1 per cent last year. Lendi is 40 per cent owned by founders and employees and its big name minority shareholders include Bailador, Macquarie Group and several sophisticated investors. Early investors included CrownBet boss Matthew Tripp. Although it is unclear if […]
