Banking News

Macquarie ties in with brokers for fintech platform

(30 August 2016 – Australia) Macquarie Business Banking and four commercial broking firms have joined together to launch a “first-to-market” platform that could “revolutionise commercial broking in Australia”.

The four broking firms, Allfin Financial Services, BKK Finance, Heritage Property Finance and Stamford Capital have joined Macquarie Business Banking to form Kubio, a group that provides a cloud-based business origination platform “built from the ground up by brokers, for brokers”.

According to the partnership, the platform aims to provide brokers with “flexible and fast solutions” to drive back-office efficiencies, such as the ability to monitor and track deal flow and boost comprehensive reporting. The platform is available to all commercial lenders irrespective of whether loans are placed with Macquarie.

The new platform provides brokers with:

• the ability to access and manage client data from any device at any time;
• a single view of customers and their assets, tracking leads from opportunity and pipeline to settlements;
• the ability to view reports in real-time, with instant access to pipeline, loan portfolio, asset classes and lender distribution;
• streamlined originations with simple online forms with verification, credit checks, digital signatures and authorisation that can all be managed using a mobile device; and
• the ability to connect with specialist brokers and industry leaders through an online community chat tool and networking and workshop events.
• Industry "lacking a commercial lending platform that provided scalable business efficiencies"

Macquarie Business Banking’s head of commercial origination, Brian Steele, said: “The launch of Kubio is in response to feedback we received from brokers, who consistently told us that the industry was lacking a commercial lending platform that provided scalable business efficiencies.

“They were looking for ways to improve their governance processes while spending less time on administration and more time focusing on their clients and growing their businesses.

“We believe the technology underpinning Kubio is the only offering of its kind in the Australian market, automating the application process from lead right through to settlement.”

The launch of Kubio follows that of other fintech services focussing on the broking channel.

Last year the HashChing platform was launched to match customers to a mortgage broker in their locale, earlier this year the web-based CashMaster platform was launched to help customers and brokers better understand true financial position, and just this week a new online mortgage platform, LoanFlare, was unveiled as a means of driving efficiencies in the third-party channel.

East & Partners’ Equipment Finance Markets report found that over 60 percent of equipment financing was broker-sourced, highlighting the importance of the industry to lenders.