A new online brokerage is encouraging consumers to switch their home loans from the carbon-exposed major banks to ethical fossil fuel free lenders.
Future Home Loans is the second ethical financial services business set up by Simon Sheikh and Adam Verwey, following the launch of Future Super last year – a superannuation fund which encourages investors to switch from funds invested in coal, oil and gas.
According to the Future Home Loans website, since 2008,
ANZ, Commonwealth,
NAB and
Westpac have loaned over $20 billion to fossil fuel projects in Australia. The brokerage says it will help consumers compare over 100 products from fossil fuel free lenders, often with lower rates than the big four.
Sheikh, a former national director of activist group GetUp, told
Fairfax Media that Future Home Loans is aiming to switch $200 million to $300 million in home loans this year.
“A mass home loan switch would make the banks sit up and take notice, it's one of their highest margin businesses,” he said.
Fairfax Media reported that the launch of Future Home Loans follows a three-month pilot that saw $15 million shifted from the big four banks, at an average of $400,000 per home loan, to lenders that do not support the expansion of major fossil fuels projects.
