Volt and AFG launch ‘Australia first’ BaaS-powered consumer products

Volt Bank and Australian Finance Group (AFG) have launched a personal finance management (PFM) app “Handl. by AFG”, and a white-label home loan product, “AFG Home Loans Sparc”, both powered by Volt’s banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platform.

The two products, which have been piloted by a group of 125 AFG brokers and their customers over the past few months, are said to be the first BaaS-powered consumer products to go live in the Australian market.

Handl provides users with access to personal financial management (PFM) tools such as budgeting and financial highlights, and provides access to Volt bank accounts. 

Meanwhile, the AFG Home Loans Sparc product features competitive interest rates for owner-occupiers and investors with sub-80 per cent loan-to-value ratio (LVR) loans.

According to the product’s target market determination, the mortgage is available for loans of between $100,000 and $1.5 million over terms of 10 to 30 years and has offset and redraw availability. It can be used for purchase, personal cash advance or refinance.

They are set to be rolled out to all AFG brokers in “early 2022”. 

The move is the first major announcement since Volt and AFG announced their strategic partnership earlier this year.

The two companies said they believe the speed at which these products have been developed and can be scaled to thousands of customers is a “clear demonstration of the advantage Volt’s unique BaaS strategy can provide to mortgage brokers and their customers”.

Steve Weston, founder and chief executive of Volt, said: “It’s very encouraging to see all the hard work put in over the past few years by the teams at Volt and our partners [are] paying off, and paying off quickly.

“The speed at which these products have been developed, and will scale, is testament to the power of BaaS to enable market-leading companies like AFG to add significant value to their customers. It is also a testament to AFG and their capabilities in both rapid product development and distribution.” 

David Bailey, CEO of AFG, said: “The development and availability of a consumer finance app is an important part of ensuring our brokers and their customers have the best opportunity to participate in the benefits of open banking as it builds across the market. This partnership will also allow them to stay at the forefront of critical technological advancements in financial services.

“By harnessing Volt’s nimble banking solutions, we are delivering innovative solutions for our brokers and their customers, and giving them the tools they need to succeed. We look forward to expanding the rollout across our entire portfolio of Australia’s leading mortgage brokers.” 

Future plans for the alliance may include adapting elements of Volt’s BaaS platform to assist in further streamlining the decisioning processes of AFG’s securitised division, developing further non-mortgage-related white-label products, and accessing Volt’s digital banking deposit products for customers of AFG brokers.

Volt Bank has been rapidly ramping up its growth recently, after acquiring Australian Mortgage and its technology, which now powers the lending component of Volt Bank’s banking-as-a-service platform and aims to deliver the challenger bank with “a multi-channel revenue capability, purpose-built to rapidly scale lending volume”.

Australian Mortgage also provides digital mortgage arrangements with Shore Financial and Mortgage Choice.

The digital mortgage solution is being distributed through Australian Finance Group (AFG), as part of Volt’s new alliance with the group.

Volt Bank also has agreements with fintechs Railsbank and QPay and recently teamed with digital currency exchange BTC Markets, to offer bank accounts to its 325,000 customers.

This week it also became the sixth bank to become an accredited data recipient under the Consumer Data Right after gaining approval from the ACCC.

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