By
Asset-based brokerage and fintech firm LoanOptions.AI has updated itsloan application technology, claiming to reduce the entire loan process – from inquiry to money in the borrowers' account – to under an hour.
"That's what this technology enables," said Julian Fayad, founder and chief executive officer of Sydney-based LoanOptions.AI. "This was the fastest we've ever done it. So it's not every application that's this fast. But we have so many examples of loans that took 45 minutes to 58 minutes. There are many, many examples where it's sub one hour."
Like the nurse who decided to apply for a loan on her lunch break and had the money in her account before her break was over, 36 minutes later, Fayad told an audience at a launch event in Sydney.
"We're bringing innovation to a lagging industry," he said.
LoanOptions.AI's mobile-first, digital platform, Hailo, includes a roughly five-minute application process where borrowers upload their ID and payslips and connect to their bank account. Artificial intelligence does the rest.
"Hailo fast tracks the entire process," Fayad told Australian Broker. "If you went to a run-of-the-mill mortgage broker and said, 'Hey, I want to apply for a loan,' they'll probably send you a fillable PDF form. Some of them have better technology. But it's super clunky. On the faster side, you're probably going to complete [the form] in an hour to 45 minutes. On the slower side, it might take you all afternoon to get all the information that the broker needs – whereas we use AI to pre-fill 80% of the data for them.
"Our vision is quite big," said Fayad, who founded the firm in 2020. "We want to change the whole entire [loan] industry and the way that people transact with brokers."
The proprietary technology, which LoanOptions.AI built in-house, is available for residential loans. At present, Hailo isn't available for commercial finance use, and Fayad said likely won't be available in the near-term either.
"It's just a different type of client," he said. "From the people that we survey, the vast majority of people buying commercial property don't want to fill out stuff online."
But Fayad said borrowers can also apply for car loans, personal loans or refinancings, as well as compare lenders, look up confidence scores and estimated property values.
"That's the value proposition," he said.
Fayad added that self-employed individuals don't have to show pay stubs and any inquiries won't impact the borrowers' credit scores.
Hailo is free for borrowers in Australia and New Zealand. Brokers, advisers and aggregators can license the technology to install on their websites for a flat monthly subscription fee of $500.
Fayad, a former broker, said that Hailo was designed with the borrowers in mind. He explained that other online loan application platforms are more suitable for brokers and aggregators.
"They're not actually putting the customer at the forefront," Fayad said. "And that's where I think our technology is different. The end client who wants to buy a house is who this technology is actually going to help. People still want human connection. So the brokers have to be careful not to outsource the wrong things. The human connection is for strategy and advice and all those things, but not the data entry stuff. And then, in the process of making that whole process streamlined, the broker benefits, because they don't have to spend lots of time – days or weeks – following up the client for their bank statements, their ID or their supporting documents. The broker can spend more time having good, valuable conversations with clients."
