by Paul McBeth
One of Australia's leading non-bank lenders is revving up its engines here, offering borrowers a fee-free home loan and planning to debut other low-cost products shortly.
Wizard Financial Services opened for business in New Zealand less than three months ago. However, it already has three Auckland branches up and running, is poised to open another on the North Shore and also has plans for Wellington and Christchurch branches.
Currently Australia's second largest non-bank financial services company with a five per cent share of the home mortgage market, Wizard is equally ambitious for New Zealand.
Executive Chairman Mark Bouris said that, in spite of the perception that New Zealand's market was competitive, the company had relished the opportunity to come here because of the healthy bank margins and lack of real alternatives.
"They told us the market was over-serviced, but actually there's not a lot of choice," Bouris said.
"I've never seen anyone 'over-serviced' by a machine-answered call centre."
Bouris said it was rubbish that people didn't need branches and that Wizard opened in areas where banks closed.
"All our research shows that people want to meet and know the people that are lending them money or providing them with cash management services. We've got a world-leading online operation, but it only works because we're also opening branches and looking people in the eye."
The company's Internet access channel Ewizard was launched last April and, after 12 months, the number of loan applications received online grew from zero to 20 per cent of all new loans written. Wizard said that 90 per cent of people who applied online had a prerequisite to see a real person at some point during the application process, which was why it believed it was important to have the "mortar" to fulfil the "clicks".