by Paul McBeth
Online mortgage broker E-Loan New Zealand is trying to put a rocket under the home loan market by offering conditional loan approvals within 30 minutes.
Dubbed Speedy Lender, the fast approval service is now offered by four of the 24 lenders currently on the E-Loan website: TSB Bank, Cairns Lockie, Frontline Finance and Silver Fern Group.
Marketing Manager Kath Dewar says they're talked with nearly all the mortgage providers that E-Loan deals with and a number of others are keen to offer Speedy Lender shortly. However, she says it's only one way to speed up the loan application process for borrowers.
"Our whole aim is to make things easier for the customer; to allow them to make choices as quickly and easily as possible." She says the use of such services will expand as people become more comfortable with doing financial transactions online.
"In the US and UK, for example, it's possible to get a loan approved in as little as ten minutes," Dewar says, "but there's a combination of ways that happens".
One is by having publicly accessible credit information, "and there's no reason why we couldn't do that here". Other areas to look at are the recognition of electronic signatures and scanned-in documents, not just hard copies of documentation.
Speedy Lender provides fast loan approval for borrowers with a clean credit history and who meet the lenders' criteria. Dewar says it particularly suits first-time buyers who want to know if they can get finance before incurring extra costs such as valuations.