Loan refinancing goes digital in WA

Reporter 13:05 PM, 4 Dec 2017 4 minute read

The banking industry in Western Australia has made changes to its refinancing methods following its move to a faster, paperless system.

Loan refinancing will now be processed digitally in Western Australia following changes made by the state’s banking sector which came into effect on 1 December.

The online refinancing method was first introduced in New South Wales and Victoria and has now been implemented in Western Australia in an effort to speed up the process.

Refinancing transactions will be made through Property Exchange Australia’s (PEXA’s) digital platform. According to PEXA’s group executive of customer and revenue, Mike Cameron, this development could halve transaction times.

“What once took an average of 40 days is now down to about 20 days thanks to the new digital way,” Mr Cameron said.

“The fastest refinance we’ve completed took 20 minutes. In that situation, the banks moved fast to accommodate an urgent customer request.

“In the past, a paper-based refinance could typically take more than one month to process.”

Mr Cameron added that in the four months following NSW and Victoria’s decision to digitise, a majority of financing transactions have been processed online.

He noted that the Australian banking sector is on its way to further digitising its operations as evidenced by increased transactions through PEXA.

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“Banks Australia-wide are well advanced in their push to digitise their back office operations, with 135 now signed to finalise property transfers through PEXA,” Mr Cameron said.

Further, the West Australian banking sector will digitise property transfers beginning 1 May 2018.

The outstanding overall value of property transactions made through the PEXA platform totals $80 billion.

[Related: Major bank mortgages to go digital]