26 March 1999
Telstra has thrown its branding behind an initiative in the potentially lucrative world of online lending.
Telstra yesterday launched a mortgage broking site with Lenders On Line, under its Big Pond banner. The initiative, first made public - accidentally - in January, comes on the back of increased Internet lending in the United States and local moves by companies such as Getsmart.
A Lenders On Line spokesman, Mr Lee Boueri, said ``with recent Bureau of Statistics figures showing 1.27 million households went online last year, the opportunities for a secure online mortgage service are limitless".
Borrowers can use the site to say what loan type they want and then have it recommend options from 100 products from various banks. They can then apply for loans via the Net, fax, phone or mail.
Telstra will earn a fee for hosting the site, but is believed not to earn sales commission.
The banks include ANZ, Westpac, ING Mercantile Mutual, Macquarie, Trust Bank, GIO, Suncorp and Citibank. An ANZ spokesman said it was ``a matter of taking advantage of other distribution opportunities, both in getting access to online capability and promoting our service".
``We're leveraging off the traffic on other sites," he said, indicating ANZ also had a relationship with Yahoo! and America Online. ANZ plans to launch its own upgraded Internet capability in June.
At an institutional presentation in London earlier this week, CBA's managing director, Mr David Murray, said Internet success for financial services growth lay with media companies. CBA had been approached by Internet companies such as Yahoo!, but the future lay with firms in the business of promotion and audience capture.
Sources suggest Mr James Packer, already making a splash with Challenger International and the start-up Contango Asset Management, has been spotted around Martin Place - suggesting a possible NineMSN link.