One neobank has very big dreams...
Digital Bank, Neobank - what’s the difference? Well in an interview with The AFR, the CEO of Australia’s newest digital bank, Simon Beitz (who is ex-Suncorp head of innovation) said that he, for one, wasn’t sure.
“We are just a digital bank - I don’t know what neobanks are. I think they are just people in T-shirts,” the Alex co-founder said.
But that confusion aside, it looks at least one neobank (those people in T-shirts) have actually got very big (mortgage) dreams.
While digital bank Alex has an $8m loan book and is hoping to hit $23m by the end of the year, neobank Volt has announced that is aiming for 1.5% of the home loan market – about $30 billion.
One of the chief architects of Volt’s ambitious program is Chairman Graham Bradley, who was HSBC Australia’s chairman. He is hoping that his efforts to gain $600 million in regulatory funds will kickstart the neobank’s assault on Australia’s mortgage market.
In recent weeks, Volt has announced a tie up with AFG, done a deal with Australian Mortgage, and has made bold assertions on how fast they will be able to provide approvals.
“Our shareholders believe very strongly in our ability to scale and capture a meaningful share of the Australian banking market,” Bradley said to the AFR.
We may soon see whether our traditional bankers, or men in t-shirts, will rule the mortgage world.
