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The major brokerage has entered its first phase of integrating open banking into its home loan application process after partnering with NextGen.
Mortgage Choice (part of the REA Group) and technology provider NextGen have announced the launch of a new partnership that sees the technology solution provider’s Financial Passport feature made available to the brokerage’s entire broker network.
Mortgage Choice brokers are now able to access NextGen’s open banking tool, the Frollo Financial Passport, through Mortgage Choice’s proprietary loan origination system, Broker Platform, giving brokers access to AI-powered insights that help deliver a great customer experience.
Powered by NextGen and open banking, Financial Passport is designed to facilitate the safe transfer of client data. It employs the government-regulated Consumer Data Right (CDR) framework and bypasses security risks typically associated with screen-scraping technology.
The new partnership marks the first phase of integrating open banking into the Mortgage Choice home loan application process.
Nicole Devine, general manager product in REA Group’s financial services business, said: “This partnership is a pivotal next step in our tech roadmap, and underscores our commitment to equipping brokers with systems that help them save time and deliver even better customer outcomes.
“Frollo’s Financial Passport uses the Consumer Data Right, an opt-in service that allows consumers to safely share their financial data with their broker.
“In an age where speed really matters, open banking and the Frollo Financial Passport significantly cut down the time required to verify assets and expenses and enables brokers to more quickly deliver real-time insights about a customer’s financial position to lenders.
“This new tool will help brokers improve conversion rates on pre-approvals, reduce processing times, and elevate the customer experience.”
Mortgage Choice becomes the latest broker group to partner with NextGen for its open banking tools, with Connective and Finsure having also done so.
However, open banking is still seen to be underutilised in the broker channel. NextGen last week released its 2025 Industry Insights Report, showing that while open banking is gaining traction across Australia’s financial services industry, adoption among mortgage brokers is still limited.
In a survey of 703 mortgage brokers for the Industry Insights Report, NextGen found that only 18 per cent of brokers had adopted the open banking features available through ApplyOnline.
According to NextGen, a key factor behind this low adoption was the continued reliance on legacy systems such as screen scraping and manual document uploads, with the majority of brokers (76 per cent) primarily relying on screen-scraping technologies, rather than open banking tools to gather information from their clients.
Indeed, 64 per cent of brokers said the main tool they used to gather financial information from clients was BankStatements (a screen-scraping tool created by illion).
Only 6 per cent said that open banking with NextGen was the main tool they used for gathering financial data.
Another factor impeding uptake was awareness, the report revealed, with 61 per cent of brokers saying they were unaware that open banking was already available within ApplyOnline.
The report said: “For those who have embraced Open Banking, the benefits are clear. Brokers report faster access to data, better security, and more efficient workflows.
“With tools like Financial Passport, brokers can receive a client’s verified financial data in as little as eight minutes. This enables more confident, data-driven conversations and quicker pre-approvals...
“By giving brokers secure, detailed access to client financial data from the start, it empowers them to act in their clients’ best interests. This capability supports compliance with the Best Interests Duty and equips brokers to confidently guide clients through complex lending decisions in a volatile rate environment.”
Speaking on The Adviser’s In Focus podcast, Renee Blethyn, head of broker partnerships at NextGen, said that open banking data not only saves brokers time, but is also “the safest way” of collecting financial information and “the most accurate”.
“But more importantly, it’s actually giving the broker the richest set of data,” she said.
[Related: Open banking still not widely adopted by brokers: NextGen]
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