LA TROBE FINANCIAL

NON-BANK LENDER OF THE YEAR

Avid Money readers would be familiar with this year’s winner of the non-bank lender of the year category, La Trobe Financial. The Melbourne-based credit asset manager, with more than $14 billion in assets under management, is one of corporate Australia’s homegrown success stories.

The group is tapping the strength of the gig economy, freelancing and e-tailer market.

“Often the issue for people working in these industries looking for finance is that the irregular nature of their employment can mean that they sit outside major banks’ loan acceptance criteria,” says Cory Bannister, chief lending officer.

La Trobe Financial steps in by going through the traditional route, assessing each application manually, as compared with the automated approval and credit assessment process run by the major banks.

“By way of specific products, we continue to get great support for our Residential LiteDoc and Commercial Lite-Doc products for loan amounts up to $25 million,” he says.

Its three most in-demand products this year are: the Residential Full-Doc loan, which caters for PAYG and self-employed customers who want quick response times, or a personalised assessment of their application; the Residential Lite-Doc loan, which caters specifically for self-employed borrowers who may fall outside traditional bank assessment criteria; and the Residential SMSF loan, which assists those with an SMSF to purchase an investment property inside their super fund.

“Borrowers want to be listened to – it is likely in the current environment largely due to the pandemic that a customer has been rejected by their trading bank because ‘the computer said no’, therefore they are seeking someone prepared to listen to their circumstance with an open mind,” says Bannister.

They also want advice, he says, particularly if a short-term “life event” or one-off situation precludes them from getting their loan approved.

Bannister points out that from time to time the major banks’ risk appetite and target customer profile can change, such as can be seen right now in an economy gripped by the pandemic and rising inflation.

La Trobe plans to launch a discounted “green mortgage” later this year for borrowers with energy-efficient homes.

Finalist Resimac is the ASX-listed company behind homeloans.com.au, which offers interest-only investment loans for as low as 2.59%pa variable as at June 2022. Pre-approval can occur within 20 minutes and customers don’t have to worry about upfront, ongoing and existing fees.

Firstmac also makes the top three this year with its competitive rates, but has received mixed customer reviews on the comparison site Mozo.