Latitude Financial has announced that it is to purchase Symple Loans in an attempt to strengthen its offering in the personal loan space.
Symple, a Melbourne-based fintech, will greatly expand the capability that Latitude has in personal loans, which has been among the biggest growth markets for the broker channel in recent months.
Latitude are one of the biggest names in the personal loan market, and will look to utilise the tech that Symple has built but at a much larger scale than before.
Brokers are now offering more and more personal loans to their clients after the market underwent significant disruption: Buy Now Pay Later has cannibalising the bottom end of the personal loan market, while at the upper end, limits are rising, which has brought brokers increasingly into play.
Latitude’s purchase went down very well on the ASX: their price has risen by 3.5% in the few hours since the announcement to the market first thing this morning.
“This is an exciting and important opportunity for Latitude that will accelerate our growth plans,” said Latitude CEO and managing director Ahmed Fahour.
“Symple’s scalable platform will enable Latitude to offer a wider range of products and product features in Australia and New Zealand, enter new geographies and significantly reduce costs while delivering superior customer and partner experiences.”
“Latitude will enhance its existing strengths, including its 2.8 million customers in Australia and New Zealand, rich data, risk capabilities and funding capacity, by adding Symple’s digital expertise, agility and proven technology.”
“The addition of Symple’s founders Bob Belan and Paul Byrne will further strengthen our management team.”
