Lender to ‘democratise’ mortgage process with AI

Mortgage Business revealed last week that new non-deposit-taking lender Australian Mortgage Marketplace (AMM) will harness blockchain technology and allow mortgage brokers to brand their own mortgages.

The group has this week divulged more details about its plans to begin lending later in the year, including the launch of its Lenders Risk Assessment System (LRAS).

AMM chief operating officer Kym Dalton explained that LRAS, which was developed in-house, has a “quick qualifier” component that provides instant feedback to brokers, improving the “speed to yes” and enabling them to offer an assessment or indicative approval letter to prospective borrowers.

“Based upon 45 risk data inputs, the LRAS uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to provide genuine risk-based pricing on an individual loan basis for the first time in Australia, democratising the home loan approval process,” Mr Dalton said.

“Another major benefit of using AI through the LRAS is that it will assist to provide consistent unbiased credit decisions, removing the subjectivity that so often causes distress to brokers,” the CEO added.

The company will also utilise comprehensive credit reporting as an input to the LRAS to bring pricing benefits to credit-worthy applicants.

AMM is on track to begin funding mortgages later this year, including a fully featured prime mortgage product on a “private label” basis by operating as a wholesale lender dealing exclusively with leading mortgage broking companies.

“In dealing exclusively with the broker channel, AMM will avoid channel conflict and the cultural bias against the broker channel that many major banks exhibit,” Mr Dalton said.

AMM is currently in the process of its Round 2 capital raising which will take it to product launch later in 2018.

[Related: New mortgage lender set to disrupt local market]