Loan-matching service expands reach

Australian fintech company Joust has announced that its Joust Instant Match service is going to be rolled out nationally.

Joust Instant Match is for customers who wish to instantly access their options and connect with an expert quickly.

The service allows customers to connect with up to three service providers and quickly assess their home loan requirement against different home loan products.

Joust was launched by former major bank executive Matt Bevan in 2016 to allow lenders to compete for home loan deals through a live digital auction process.

In May of this year, mortgage bidding site LoanDolphin merged with the Joust brand to enable them to scale and create a larger online home loan auction platform. The merged entity released Joust Instant Match, which the fintech says can provide borrowers with “the most competitive loan options instantly”.

The service has now been released nationally and is being made available to brokers.

Joust CEO Carl Hammerschmidt said the service could allow brokers who wish to scale beyond their network to develop their digital reach and reduce their upfront time and capital commitment,

“Mortgage brokers are now able to subscribe and acquire quality home loan leads for a fraction of what it would cost if they were to utilise their own strategies via other channels,” he said.

According to Mr Hammerschmidt, for the first three months, brokers and lenders were able to increase their reach with refinance audiences with an average loan-to-value ratio (LVR) of 80 per cent or less, while being able to geo-target clients based on their specific requirements.

He added that the lender was keen on ensuring that there was a level playing field between lenders and brokers using the service.

“Joust Instant Match means we are now able to provide an immediate customer connection, and it allows brokers and lenders of all sizes to compete on a level playing field," he said.

“Our new platform not only provides a stronger digital route to market for lenders and brokers, but the main priority is ensuring the right customer is being offered the right loan at exactly the right time," he said.

“Instant Match allows us to provide commercials that scale well with larger practices with a marketing budget to match, as well as smaller firms,” he added.

Michael Chadwick, a Loan Market franchisee who was an initial partner for Instant Match, said that most Joust customers that have come through the platform were “actively looking to do something and are expecting a phone call from me to discuss loan options with them”.

“This has been a good solution to help drive business volumes now as well as build a database of active customers to write business in the future,” he said.

Joust currently supplies home loan opportunities of more than $300 million a month to their mortgage broker partners and direct lenders.

[Related: Mortgage platform to chase low-deposit borrowers]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.