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 […]
Bendigo embraces fintech to offer instant home loans
In its bid to improve its services for potential mortgage clients, Bendigo Bank has partnered with fintech provider Tic:Toc to offer instant home loans starting early next year. The partnership enables Bendigo to utilize Tic:Toc’s platform in offering an automated assessment on home-loan applications. The bank was the first Australian lender to offer a digital home-loan application and assessment process under its own brand. Tic:Toc first launched the platform in July 2017, offering a streamlined digital fulfilment process. Tic:Toc founder and CEO Anthony Baum said the platform promises to cut expenses needed to process and deliver home-loan applications, resulting in cost efficiencies on the side of the lenders. “There’s actually […]
How one fintech is changing the mortgage industry
Customers choosing home loans have traditionally either negotiated directly with banks or worked with a broker to secure the best loan that particular broker could find them. But with hundreds of lending products on the market and many brokers working with panels that limited them to a small subset of loans, consumers lacked the information to ensure they were getting the best rates and product features. Fintech Hashching has turned the process on its head by negotiating and de-branding a range of home loan products, which are then referred to brokers along with customer prospects. Because customers choose loans based on their attributes and aren’t told which organisation the loan […]
New breed of savvy Australians embrace digital and choice in pursuit of home ownership
The Lendi Home Loan Index Q3 2018 (LHLI) unveils key trends among Australians searching for a home loan online*. The LHLI suggests that more consumers are taking financial matters in their own hands by embracing a digital-first approach in lieu of the traditional bank or broker model. While the wider home loan industry is dominated by the big fours, the LHLI shows that Australians using Lendi are brand agnostic. In fact, 82.9 per cent of Australians don’t have a preference for settling their loan with a major lender. The LHLI data also signifies Australians’ positive intentions when it comes to their own debt management. An overwhelming 85.5 per cent […]
uno Home Loans appoints Anthony Justice as CEO
Online mortgage broker uno Home Loans has appointed Anthony Justice to the role of Chief Executive Officer. Anthony joins uno having spent the last decade in senior management roles in the financial services industry, including CEO of IAG’s Australian Consumer Division. uno Home Loans Chairman Abi Cleland said: “Anthony has extensive financial services experience; an impressive track record of leading and transforming customer-focused businesses; and strong alignment with uno’s values.” “We are delighted Anthony has come onboard to lead the charge as uno ramps up its growth trajectory and continues to shake up the home loan industry.” Anthony Justice said: “Getting a home loan is one of the biggest financial […]
Australia’s ‘first’ blockchain lender sets sights on mortgages
Australia’s “first” blockchain lender, which is set to launch next year, is offering a crowdsourced funding equity to brokers. Australian Mortgage Marketplace (AMM), co-founded by industry stalwarts Graham Andersen (CEO) and Kym Dalton (COO), has pledged to “overhaul” the Australian mortgage market with the “biggest change since the GFC” by funding prime loans on “Australia’s first mortgage securitisation blockchain”. According to the wholesale lender, which aims to be backed by major investors and industry super funds, its “Carbon” securitisation platform will leverage distributed ledger technology to deliver the benefits of increased transparency, security and automation. Its operating efficiencies will also reportedly present “pricing benefits” for Australian borrowers, enabling partner brokers to […]
uno cracks the formula for 10-minute home loan recommendations
Online mortgage broker uno Home Loans has introduced technology that delivers refinancers a credit proposal for a cheaper home loan in the time it takes to drink a coffee. Watch the video here. The new refinancing pathway on uno’s platform digitises the process to combine a property valuation; ID verification; instant credit check; collection of current loan details; verification of income, expenses and liabilities; and assessment with credit policies from nine lenders. This expedited process – which would take days with a traditional broker – addresses a major barrier to more Australians refinancing and saving. uno Home Loans Founder and Chief Innovation Officer Vincent Turner said, “Many Australians know they […]
Specialist lender encourages brokers to think fintech
Fintechs are disrupting the way people bank, from moving money around accounts to applying for mortgages. While some are concerned about keeping pace with these technologies, or what it may mean for regulation, others are welcoming the changes. One such pioneer is Liberty which says the emergence of fintechs has enabled growth, praising their appetite to take risks and try new things. Liberty group sales manager, John Mohnacheff, encourages others to embrace new ideas, as it enables businesses to grow and develop. “At the core of our business is innovation and it’s a delight to be joined by entrepreneurs who are also experimenting with different ways of doing things,” he […]
