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The fintech lender has hired Adelaide Bank’s former head of broker to accelerate its entry into the third-party distribution space.
Neo-lender Athena Home Loans — a fintech offering owner-occupier and investor mortgages — has welcomed Raj Kapoor as its head of broker distribution.
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Mr Kapoor, who was most recently the head of broker distribution at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, started in his new position this week (9 January).
Athena’s new head of broker distribution has nearly 20 years of experience in the financial services space, having been at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank for the past three and a half years and having held a range of senior mortgage positions at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) over a 15-year career before that.
He takes over the lender’s distribution responsibilities from Brent Davidson (now the general manager for sales and distribution at Deposit Power) — who was spearheading the broker pilot last year.
As the head of broker distribution, Mr Kapoor will be responsible for the fintech’s third-party channel arrangements in mortgage distribution, which so far include a white label offering with Mortgage Choice and an aggregator partnership with FAST.
He reports to Cam Bradley, Athena’s chief customer officer.
Speaking to The Adviser about the appointment, Mr Bradley said: “Raj brings excellent experience in the broker channel and leading successful distribution teams with a focus on great broker and customer service.
“His expertise in leading teams through significant volume growth is very timely for us as we prepare for a big 2023 and beyond in the broker channel.”
Commenting on his new position, Mr Kapoor said: “I’m excited to be part of this next phase of the Athena journey.
“We [Athena] are recognised for our commitment to customer service and innovation, and I am excited to be able to bring this to life in the third-party space to benefit both our customers and broker partners.”
Athena has been building its broker proposition for the past year, having traditionally been a direct-to-consumer lender.
Noting the lender’s expansion into the broker channel, Mr Bradley told The Adviser: “Over the past year, Athena has been working closely with a group of leading brokers to design and build out an exceptional digital home loan experience backed up by fantastic human service, delivering great outcomes for brokers and their customers.
“In 2023 we look forward to expanding our BDM team and supporting more brokers and their customers.”
Growing strength of channel attracting more lenders
Athena is one of a swathe of mortgage lenders that have been expanding into third-party distribution. Mutual lender RACQ (Royal Automobile Club of Queensland) Bank has now begun working with brokers for the first time, and digital lender ubank (owned by NAB) also broke into the channel recently following its acquisition of 86 400.
The attraction of third-party distribution partly comes from the dominance of the channel — with more than 70 per cent of all residential mortgages now coming through mortgage brokers (according to MFAA data).
Indeed, Athena’s co-founder and chief executive Nathan Walsh told The Adviser last year that he believed brokers were “essential in the Australian mortgage ecosystem, serving as much as 70 per cent of originations”.
“Borrowers value the advice and service that helps them move with confidence through their home finance journey.
“We want to make sure the benefit of Athena’s innovative products are available for these broker customers,” he said.
As part of its escalation into the broker channel, Athena recently partnered with Simpology to create a new mortgage application platform for brokers, Loanapp.
The lodgement and application tool aims to remove the need for paperwork or in-person meetings in order to streamline the mortgage application process.
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