Loan fintech launches loan tracking tool

Online brokerage and finance fintech LoanOptions.ai has developed a loan tracker tool that offers customers full transparency on the progress of their loan application.

The platform, which utilises artificial intelligence to pre-approve borrowers on personal and asset finance loans, has built “dynamic countdown timers” that reflect how far through the process their application is.

The tech works by pulling on turnaround and progression data from the dealership finance platform DriveIq, which LoanOptions.ai uses.

Once a loan is submitted to a lender, it then sets the countdown timer to be the relevant time frame, providing a "more realistic timeframe for the client based on real world data and not the lenders advertised SLA".

Moreover, if a lender's turnaround time blows out, for example during busy periods, then this is also accounted for.

It also translates the lender statuses, which incorporate industry jargon, into simple English.

The tool is accessible from a secure code sent to the client’s mobile number – to mitigate the need for borrowers to have to log in or remember passwords.

Customers are also able to make direct contact with the broker who is handling the file should they have any questions.

According to the fintech, the new launch aims to improve transparency on turnaround times and help borrowers understand how long it will take to progress to the next stage, based on individual lenders.

Speaking of the tool, Julian Fayad, chief executive and founder at LoanOptions.ai, said: “Why is it that customers can track a pizza delivery to the value of $20 but [customers] can’t see where their finance application is up to when the value is 50k or more? 

“Why should we allow them to accept substandard service, communication and a lack of transparency which leads to poor outcomes and ‘status anxiety’?”

Turnaround times have been of paramount importance to both brokers and their clients recently, as borrowers look to save money in a rising interest rate environment and take advantage of rates while they remain historically low.

By providing the tracking tool, it is hoped that borrowers can feel more in control of the process.

According to LoanOptions.ai’s internal figures, over the 2022 financial year, the fintech funded $37 million worth of loans for its clients, with an average loan size of $40,200.  

This figure is reported to have increased by $12 million year-on-year. 

More than half of these loans (55.6 per cent) were consumer loans, with the remaining (44.4 per cent) for business. 

Its total revenue also lifted by $1.1 million compared to last financial year, hitting a sum of $2.85 million over this 12-month period. 

“We overcame all the challenges in the market including the pandemic, lockdowns, restrictions, rapidly rising interest rates, lender appetite changes, plummeting consumer confidence, closed borders, small businesses going into survival mode, natural disasters, a federal election and more,” he said.

[Related: AMP boosts digital footprint in bid to slim turnarounds]