“There’s a gap in the UK market” — Easylodge on its move into bridging

The ‘Aussies are coming’ is a phrase which has chilled generations of British cricket and rugby league fans. But the arrival of New South Wales headquartered Easylodge on our shores promises a more positive result for this country’s bridging sector.

Fintech Easylodge, which is also joining the Bridging Loan Directory, provides an end-to-end loan management and credit decisioning platform for bridging, development and commercial mortgage lenders.

Founded 19 years ago by managing director Kosta Patsan, it has supported over 100 lenders across Australia and Asia-Pacific in the non-standard sector covering areas such as car finance, mortgage finance and bridging. It is now building a presence in the UK.

Easylodge says its cloud-based platform enables lenders to process applications more efficiently, manage complex loan structures and deploy funds far more quickly.

The system also automates loan book management, including record keeping, redemption calculations, arrears management and portfolio reporting, removing the need for manual spreadsheets and disconnected systems.

Toby Potter, the company’s Head of Sales UK, explained that bridging is the key initial focus for Easylodge as it enters the British market. “We thought by concentrating on one area that it would be a good way of establishing ourselves here,” he explained. “There are a lot of lenders in the UK and a lot of investment in the property sector. That’s from one man and his band companies to professional builders and construction organisations. We also saw an opportunity, a gap in the market that wasn’t being met.”

Potter explained that investment loan platforms already exist in the UK, but because of their cost are only really accessible to larger lenders with deep pockets.

“For low to mid-sized lenders there are a mix of solutions for loan management and making credit risk decisions,” he said. “That includes building up an existing CRM system and heavily customising around that. Now CRM systems are very good at managing contacts and relationships, but not as good at calculating interest and managing loans. Or there could be a home-built solution or just simply the process relies only on spreadsheets.”

He added: “When you speak to lenders they tell you that they all do pretty much the same thing with loan management and credit risk processes. But when you peel the layers back, they all do it slightly differently. Even within a business, people will do something slightly differently. As such, there is no consistency. So, our opportunity is to help lower to mid-tier lenders have a more robust, unified, comprehensive software platform and give them more control and efficiency. Decisions will be made in exactly the same way on the same basis and there is a workflow and audit trail all the way through.”

Easylodge has been talking to lenders since it quietly first arrived in the UK around two years ago.

“It was a low-key arrival with no fanfare because we wanted to get one or two interesting lending clients on board first to help us understand what changes, if any, we had to make to the platform for the UK market,” Potter said.

The first 6 months was spent “doing the rounds” looking for potential clients before sealing deals with two lenders around 18 months ago. Potter said he can’t reveal the names of those companies just “yet”, but that they would be very recognisable to a bridging market audience.

“We invested heavily in collaborating with these clients and it went so well that a couple of weeks ago we were able to announce to the market that we were actually here in the UK,” Potter said. “The product is now fully tuned and integrated with third parties here in the UK. We are ready to go.”

So, what can UK lenders expect?

The platform offers a dedicated broker portal, allowing intermediaries to submit loan applications, track progress in real time and generate instant Agreements in Principle (AIPs). A machine-learning enabled credit engine designed to automate underwriting decisions assesses borrower risk, property values and exit strategies to deliver automated credit decisions in around 30 seconds.

It also boasts a servicing platform built to manage the complexities of short-term property lending, including rolled up or retained interest, staged development drawdowns and automated redemption tracking. It is designed to support both regulated residential lending and unregulated commercial or buy-to-let bridging loans. It integrates with open banking, automated KYC/AML checks and electronic identification systems to support FCA compliance.

“We deliver what lenders need at the front end of the loan management process, but also the third-party integrations that will help automate a lot of credit checking. It will accelerate the decision in principle process,” he said. “So, if someone walks into a broker on the high street, their information is fed into the portal. This is then processed by the Easylodge platform against the lender’s rules and criteria, then checked through 3^rd party integrations. So, you get a green light for a go in principle, or not, within 10 to 20 minutes, when the person is still there sitting in front of you. Timing is everything because if that person leaves the office without an agreement they could go to another broker to see if they can get a better deal somewhere else.”

Potter said the team is now regularly talking to lenders about the solution and has a target of signing up 6 to 8 new clients a year for the next two years.

“We are investing heavily and growing quickly,” he said. “We are in a good position to hit those numbers.”

Easylodge is also always looking to enhance the power of its platform, including how AI can help in the credit decision process. “We’re at the early stages with AI on our Credit Lending engine. We are trying to build some more context into decision-making, so it isn’t just a green or a red,” Potter explained. “If we can bring Open Banking into the AI process as well, we can look back at a person’s history of transactions and payments. That gives a client the chance to provide more information to help them with their case if there is an unexplained issue. It’s baby steps at the moment, because we don’t want the AI to go rogue and approve everybody’s loans because it thinks it is a good idea!”

Extra human power is also needed. The Easylodge UK team is likely to grow to around 5 people in the short-term. This number will increase by one at least twice a year when founder Patsan makes his regular visits over to talk to lenders and analyse the market.

Joining the Bridging Loan Directory will be another way Easylodge can better understand the needs of UK lenders. “Bridging Loan Directory will help us get seen in the market and get lenders clicking,” Potter said. “We also genuinely want to be part of the bridging community here. We want to be part of the conversation and share our knowledge and experience.  The Aussie Fintech sector is so well-respected now. It has a huge amount of maturity, and it is something we want to bring to UK bridging lenders.”

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