Liberty goes for simplicity

Australian mortgage wholesaler Liberty Financial has opted for simplicity, and amalgamated all its previous loan offerings into one product called the Star loan.

Thursday, August 4th 2005, 6:34AM

by Janine Ogier

Star is a rationalisation of three products, Fresh Start, Business Equity and Alta, and was rolled out in Australia in October and in New Zealand earlier this year.

“Through feedback from our business partners and general product research, we realised we were over-complicating things,” Liberty Financial general manager strategy James Boyle says.

“Customers were somewhat bemused by the variety of choices that they were facing when they were making what is effectively the most important financial decision in their life.

Liberty Financial aimed to provide an easy, simple and straightforward product which still allowed for recognition of the uniqueness of each situation. It is an alternative for customers who don’t meet traditional lenders’ criteria or choose not to rely on a bank.

“The Star loan is a product which offers, we believe, the broadest range of mortgage alternatives to consumers in the specialist lending space, not prime lending,” Boyle says.

Customers include people who have experienced credit issues in the past, or who have unusual savings regimes such as a gifted deposit, and self-employed people who need an alternative verification option for businesses because they can’t, or don’t want to, provide tax returns.

“Liberty would like to think that ultimately we can make something work for most customers,” Boyle says.

“We review the customer’s circumstances and review what has led to a particular issue and, more importantly, review where they are today and what they have done since and consider providing them with a reasonable alternative in mortgage lending,” he says.

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