Three more banks join online mortgage platform

The online service that sees lenders bid – or joust – for home loans in real time now has 10 lenders on its panel including BankSA, Adelaide Bank, Australian Unity, People’s Choice Credit Union, Bank of Queensland, Beyond Bank and Gateway Credit Union.

Joust’s founder and managing director Mark Bevan told The Adviser that he has seen significant interest from mutual banks looking for a strong digital origination strategy.

Some of Joust’s newest lenders, such as IMB Bank and Victorian Teachers Mutual Bank, also distribute through the third-party channel.

“It is a risky strategy to underinvest in digital,” Mr Bevan said. “Whether you’re going for growth through third-party or growth through digital or both, these are large, costly decisions.”

So far the platform has only hosted the variable rates of its lenders, but expects to launch fixed-rates and investor loans next month following positive feedback from borrowers.

“We have done a bit of product expansion. We have had a lot of feedback from consumers that they would love to use Joust for their investment properties,” Mr Bevan said.

“We weren’t going to introduce that until next year but the feedback has been so strong that we’ve brought the launch forward.”

In August, Joust reported that more than 300 South Australians had collectively received $120 million in owner-occupied variable rate mortgages through the platform. About 90 per cent of these were refinancing.

Mr Bevan said the group will focus on its expansion into the Victorian market and hopes to secure more lenders over the coming months.

[Related: Bank's quiet launch into broker channel praised by tech provider]