CBA unveils digital home loan called Unloan

The big bank is restarting an app for customers to trade up to 10 cryptocurrencies and is launching a digital home loan product.

CBA chief executive Matt Comyn

Commonwealth Bank has unveiled a new digital home-loan platform called Unloan, which will process applications in 10 minutes and target the refinancing market while offering a loyalty discount.

Unloan was part of a series of initiatives announced by chief executive Matt Comyn on Tuesday, including the share-trading platform CommSec becoming available in the CommBank app and the launch of Kit – a money app and digital information tool to help kids manage their earnings, saving and spending.

Despite recent carnage in the crypto market, Mr Comyn also said CBA would restart a pilot program for customers to buy, sell and hold up to 10 cryptocurrencies in the bank’s app.

“I dare say it will be an issue for the incoming government about how to most appropriately regulate the sector, and we want to play a leading role in shaping the most appropriate regulatory outcome,” he said.

“Our intention still is to restart the pilot but there’s still a couple of things to work through on the regulatory front.”

Unloan, incorporating a single low-cost interest rate of 2.14 per cent, targets owner-occupiers looking to refinance their properties up to a value of $3m and up to 80 per cent of the property’s value.

It will be the bank’s lowest-cost home-lending platform, enabling CBA to reinvest the savings in a customer loyalty discount that grows by 0.01 per cent a year, up to 0.3 per cent over 30 years.

CBA retail boss Angus Sullivan said the quality of a customer’s data would determine whether their loan could be approved, as well, in 10 minutes.

“Open banking (the ability to share banking data with accredited third parties) will be a really important part of getting to ‘approved’,” Mr Sullivan said.

“Over the course of this year we’d love to see a really substantial number of customers approved in 10 minutes.”

Mr Comyn said digital innovation was core to CBA’s strategy of using technology to build the best integrated and personalised digital experience.

Lenders, however, are increasingly competing on speed and simplicity in the key home-loan market.

AMP has announced a new digital mortgage to be offered in partnership with the fintech Nano, while National Australia Bank said at its half-year result earlier this month that it aimed to build Australia’s simplest home loan by 2023-24.

Human intervention would be “the exception” in the bank’s digital, end-to-end platform.

CBA also announced a range of new features for its CommBank app – the eighth most-used app in Australia with an average of 9.4 million daily log-ins.

The bank said its leading digital stockbroking service, CommSec, would ultimately be available in the app.

Starting with CommSec Pocket, the first CommSec offering to be integrated, existing and new customers will be able to access and transact on their investment accounts through the app with a single log-in.

CommSec online investors have more than doubled over the last two years from 750,000 in December 2019 to 1.52 million in November 2021.

CommSec Pocket, which was launched three years ago, has more than 330,000 accounts, with customers able to invest a minimum of $50 with low brokerage through a range of exchange traded funds.

In an update of its Dollarmites program A further initiative launched on Tuesday was Kit, a money app and digital information tool for kids aimed at helping them learn about money, as well as how to save and how to budget.

Kit is in pilot with up to 5000 customers.

Finally, CBA launched a new recognition program called CommBank Yello, incorporating personalised benefits.

Yello will be available to more than six million retail customers with a banking account.

Benefits will be tailored to customers depending on their products and tenure with the bank, and whether they are a homeowner, investor or everyday banking customer.

Homeowner customer benefits will include a $120 annual cashback on home insurance, shopping offers and discounts on home-related purchases.

Mr Comyn said CBA wanted to recognise customers for the depth and duration of their relationships with the bank by offering them “tangible value and ways to save”.