Tag: Personal Loans

Neo Lender Wisr Increases Loan Limits

Wisr is Australia’s only ASX listed marketplace lender and a fintech pioneer in the rapidly growing Australian consumer finance market. The company is is increasing its personal loan limits following increased borrower demand, strong institutional lender support and continued improvement to loan evaluation.

From Australian Broker.

As of this week, Wisr will increase its personal loan limit from $35,000 up to $50,000, with a comparative interest rate up to 5% p.a. lower than the four major banks.

Loans will be available for any worthwhile purpose over three or five years, with a comparison rate of 9.36% p.a. for borrowers with a strong credit rating. The neo-lender also offers no early repayment or exit fees.

Chief executive officer Anthony Nantes said, “We have never been in a stronger position to help more Australians achieve a fairer financial future. During the past six months we’ve seen increasing borrower demand, continued strong support from institutional lenders and improvements to our lending platform.

“[The] announcement means creditworthy Australian borrowers now have more choice, to do bigger, more exciting things, and the opportunity to potentially make significant savings through lower interest rates and lower fees when compared to a personal loan from a traditional big bank.”

The move follows a period of strong personal lending growth for the company. Wisr announced record loan growth earlier this year, with originated loans growing by 42% in FY18 Q3 when compared with the previous quarter. It was the company’s largest quarter in loan originations since it began in 2014.

During the same period the company also announced ongoing improvement to its automated loan evaluation platform. The gross annualised loss rate for the loan book up to the quarter ending 31 March 2018 had also been below 2%.

Latitude Insurance Refunds $1.1 Million From CCI Mis-selling

Hundreds of Latitude Insurance customers were mis-sold consumer credit insurance (CCI) with personal loans says ASIC and will be refunded to a total of $1.1 million.

Hallmark General Insurance Company Ltd (trading as Latitude Insurance) will provide refunds  of approximately $1.1 million to 905 customers after it mis-sold consumer credit insurance (CCI) with Latitude personal loans and incorrectly denied claims on CCI policies sold with Latitude and other credit cards.

CCI is a type of add-on insurance that provides some cover to meet the repayments under a consumer’s loan contract if they die, suffer a traumatic illness (such as cancer), or become disabled or unemployed.

Latitude Insurance identified and reported to ASIC that between October 2011 and June 2014, it sold involuntary unemployment insurance to personal loan customers who were ineligible to claim because they did not work the required minimum 20 hours per week.

It also identified that between May 2014 and February 2017, its new partly automated claims assessment process had incorrectly denied claims to credit card CCI customers, because it failed to properly apply the exclusion definition of ‘casual employment.’

In response, Latitude Insurance will:

  • refund premiums and interest to personal loan involuntary unemployment insurance customers who were ineligible to claim. Customers also have the option to retain their policy and will not be subject to the minimum working hours condition for past or future claims.
  • pay claim amounts and interest to credit card CCI customers that had incorrectly denied claims.

Acting ASIC Chair Peter Kell said customers should never be sold insurance they won’t be able  to claim on and that claims processes must be robust.

‘Customers should always be confident that when they come to claim on their insurance, their claim will be properly assessed.’

Latitude Insurance will be contacting eligible customers.