Ongoing investments in mortgage innovations enable financial institutions to “offer a more valuable, and therefore, stickier experience for the customer, thereby reducing the need to differentiate on price alone,” said Doug Nixon, EY banking and capital markets leader for Oceania.
Three of Australian Broker’s 5-Star Mortgage Innovators shared how they have leveraged fast-evolving technologies to push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Mynt Financial
Using its Mynt Savers app, Mynt Financial transformed its lead pipeline, ensuring that no leads fall through the cracks.
Read more: Best Mortgage Innovations in Australia | 5-Star Mortgage Innovators
Kristy Bartlett, co-director and head of partnerships at Mynt Financial, said the firm was determined to build a relationship with those others may consider as “cold leads” – those who are not ready to do anything for at least six months to two years.
This is to ensure that the firm is “along for the journey and could hold their hands and be ready to be their broker when they were three months out from being ready,” Bartlett said.
The firm’s new customer service reps, Mynt Savers Coaches and an automated system, encourage prospects to save a deposit for their first home.
“Many people go away to save, but if there is no coach or anyone cheering from the sidelines, it’s easy to give up and go on holiday or buy a car with your house-saving money,” Bartlett said.
Using Mynt Financial’s savers program, the average person takes about nine months to reach their savings deposit goal. The firm said it is determined to onboard 200 people to the program, with 10 people qualifying for a home loan each month – a goal Mynt anticipates will be achieved in 18 months.
Brighten Home Loans
Brighten Home Loans opted to build, rather than buy its new lending platform – one that is “tailored to its business needs, is able to process large application volumes, is integrated with key third-party services… and is increasing processing speeds and turnaround times for brokers,” said Craig Thompson, chief technology officer.
And because the architecture is more composable, Brighten can hook into other third-party service providers. It has roughly six or seven integrations with companies such as CoreLogic and Equifax.
“When we hit headwinds, do we need to introduce new products? Do we need to think about asset classes? No, we can actually pivot very quickly, and we’ll be doing so,” Thompson said. “Everything flows through the nervous system, sort of like our integration layer and our data lake. So, we have all the data and analytics starting to be merged and/or at least bubble up to the surface.”
This mortgage innovation has enabled Brighten to increase scalability, market responsiveness, develop new insights through its analytics platform, and drive business efficiencies with new automation tools.
Helia
2022 has been a year of transformation for Helia.
Strachan Taylor, acting chief commercial officer and strategic partnership leader at Helia, said the firm reimagined and innovated its buy and rent calculator “to reflect contemporary deposit options that are used by home buyers, including our various evolving LMI payment features.”
The deposit comparison estimator tool enables the firm to better educate brokers, lenders, and aspiring home buyers on the options available to them. The tool also provides an estimate of cost, along with key considerations, across six scenarios:
- Wait and save for a 20% deposit
- Buy now with the support of a third-party guarantor
- Buy with government schemes, such as the First Home Guarantee
- Buy now with the upfront cost of LMI capitalised into the loan amount
- Buy now with an LMI monthly fee
- Buy now with LMI family assistance
The tool also provides brokers and lenders with a convenient method to discuss such topics as the best use of their customers’ deposits, LMI, and other facts relevant to their obligation to act in the best interest of the home buyer.
The estimator also provides the user with a snapshot of future value: it projects assumptions out 10, 20, and 30 years, which assists home buyers in considering their financial situation and enables them to make decisions with more confidence.
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