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The eChoice brand is expected to be “wound down” after CBA sells the trail book to MA Financial-owned aggregator Finsure.
Aggregation group Finsure has entered into an agreement to purchase the eChoice trail book (registered as Finconnect [Australia] Pty Ltd) from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
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A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson confirmed to The Adviser that the bank will exit Finconnect (trading as eChoice) and enter into an arrangement to transfer several assets to Finsure.
As part of this transfer, brokers who were formally with eChoice will continue to have their entitlement to future trail commissions, which will be payable by Finsure going forward.
The major bank is targeting completion of the transfer by 1 April 2022 with a “broader wind-down of the business” to complete by the end of May 2022.
Simon Bednar, Finsure’s general manager, commented: “After careful consideration, Finsure has reached an agreement to acquire several of the eChoice assets, namely the loan back book.
“Finsure will be providing broker’s support to transfer across to the Finsure aggregation network and we are committed to making the process as seamless as possible. We will provide assistance with migrating brokers loan and customer data into our Infynity CRM platform.”
The aggregator held a series of webinars co-hosted with eChoice earlier this week to outline its vision with their mortgage brokers and discuss Finsure’s service proposition.
Mr Bednar continued: “Finsure have invested significant time and resources to ensure all eChoice brokers will have a seamless and stress-free experience whilst transitioning across.
“We welcome the Finconnect/eChoice brokers into the Finsure family.”
eChoice had originally been bought by CBA in 2017, after the aggregation group had entered administration. The major bank bought eChoice’s operating assets, including its intellectual property and platform and its digital home lending solutions, for its subsidiary Finconnect (Australia) Pty Ltd.
In a statement to The Adviser regarding the Finsure agreement, a Commonwealth Bank spokesperson said: “The exit from eChoice delivers on CBA’s simpler, better bank strategy and follows the exit of CBA’s mortgage broking businesses over the past two years.
“CBA believes Finsure provides the best opportunity for eChoice’s brokers going forward and Finsure will continue to provide high quality service to eChoice’s customers.”
The move comes as Finsure rapidly ramps up its growth path after having been acquired by MA Financial Group.
Since then, the aggregator has added a new foreign exchange transfer service to its customer relationship management (CRM) platform through its partnership with the fintech company, Send Payments.
It also recently completed a deal with smart insurance provider Honey Insurance.
The acquisition is the latest in a string of major structural changes in the aggregation space.
Nearly every major aggregation group (aside from Connective) have either merged, been acquired, or bought another aggregator in the past year – with several boutique aggregators also going through new partnership arrangements.
[Related: Finsure sale completes]
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