Australian Banks Get Another Financial Friend With LoanNET

E-commerce start-ups in the Australian finance industry continue to knock on the doors of established banks for support in garnering customers, with the latest deal between online loan provider LoanNET and both Citibank and Westpac.

Customers of Citibank, Westpac, or Westpac’s subsidiary providers Challenge
Bank and Bank of Melbourne who apply for a mortgage with their banks
through LoanNET will have their standard establishment fee reimbursed at
settlement by LoanNET, saving several hundred Australian dollars on the
cost of the loan.

The LoanNET deal echoes a partnership struck last week between E*Trade
Australia and the ANZ Bank, where equity was exchanged by E*Trade for a
shot at ANZ’s customers.

“The key to this major development is that Liberty Financial has
incorporated the lending guidelines of each bank and their mortgage
insurers into their online site, LoanNET,” said Sherman Ma of Liberty
Financial, the financial services institution behind LoanNET.

“This allows LoanNET to instantly match lender’s criteria with customer
details and give the customer peace of mind that their application will be
successful.”

After the first month of LoanNET’s operations it had received over AUS$70
million (US$46 million) in loan applications, using a software
infrastructure which took AUS$1 million (US$0.7 million) to develop.