New mortgage lender set to disrupt local market

Non-deposit-taking lender Australian Mortgage Marketplace (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.

The company’s innovation extends to both mortgage product design and the structure of the mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) that will fund the mortgages.

AMM will embrace Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), which has wide application across a range of industries including financial services.

Two mortgage industry veterans, Graham Andersen and Kym Dalton, are among the highly experienced AMM team.

Speaking to Mortgage Business, AMM COO Kym Dalton said that the use of DLT will bring efficiencies to the mortgage provider by enabling the company to cut out layers of complexity and cost in financing mortgages and to provide a better deal for Australian borrowers.

“DLT provides greater transparency and trust for RMBS investors by using smart contracts to provide a ‘single source of truth’,” Mr Dalton said.

“AMM’s DLT platform will give Australian investors the confidence to fund mortgages by ‘investing like a bank’. AMM intends to utilise the efficiencies of DLT to provide a genuinely competitive alternative to existing residential mortgage lenders in Australia — including the major banks.”

AMM chief executive Graham Andersen noted that there has been little innovation and no new major funder in the Australian Mortgage Marketplace for over 10 years — a period in which the market has doubled in size.

“With no legacy systems, substantial in-house expertise and industry-leading business partners, AMM will maximise the use of developments in technology to bring tangible benefits to all in the mortgage value chain,” the CEO said.

The company has partnered with Block8, leaders in blockchain and DLT, to develop the shared data and workflow system.

“Block8 looks to partner with leading companies and domain experts, like AMM, to create innovative applications. This allows us to transform business models and disrupt industries using the unique qualities of blockchain and DLT technology,” Block8 CEO Tim Bass said.

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