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 channel looks like it will continue to be a significant part of the distribution model for mortgages. It is a revenue pool we have not owned any of before, and it is adjacent growth opportunity for the Westpac group,” said Westpac’s head of strategy, Gary Thursby.”

Uno presents a different way of approaching the opportunity. The business model of mortgage broker is still very traditional. We want to modernise it. The market is going to go through a lot of change, which will create opportunities.”

Uno, established two years ago, is recruiting a new CEO to drive sales growth. Uno founder Vincent Turner will move to a new role of chief innovation officer, leading product development.

Uno does not disclose loan volumes or customer numbers, but it is believed to be facilitating mortgages worth tens of millions of dollars each month. Uno’s website gets 100,000 hits per month, and more than 15,000 customers signed up for an account last month. A growing number of users are first-home buyers and there is growing interest in refinancing existing loans.

To read more, please click on the link below…

Source: Westpac invests $25m more in Uno in mortgage broking play | afr.com