Sandstone today completed the agreement with RP Data Limited for the sale of Sandstone’s Valuation Management Service (VMS) business to RP Data. All but 5 of Sandstone’s 200+ staff, will remain with Sandstone to continue work on Lending and Online Banking innovations.

Sandstone’s CEO Bob Hall says that the sale of the VMS business to RP Data is a win for Mortgage Lenders. Sandstone has successfully developed VMS into Australia’s leading property valuation hub, processing around 600,000 valuations per annum.

“Sandstone is an innovator in the finance industry and has developed VMS into a mature platform servicing two of the major mortgage lenders in Australia, ANZ and Westpac, as well as most of the regional banks” said Mr Hall.

“The acquisition by RP Data provides further scope for innovation of the VMS platform enhancing services for lenders and the valuation industry” he said.

“The sale also places additional funding at Sandstone’s disposal for new innovations in Mortgage automation and Online Banking. Commercialising innovations in these two areas is Sandstone’s specialty”.

RP Data’s simultaneous acquisition of the Valex Group means that RP Data’s transaction volumes will increase substantially to approximately 1 million per annum. This presents an unprecedented opportunity to develop and deliver the ‘next generation’ of risk solutions to improve quality and service performance for the finance and valuation industries.

This year’s customer conference will be held at The Sheraton on the Park Hotel in Sydney over two days on May 25 and 26 - make sure that you put these dates in your diaries.

This year’s conference will profile organisations who have implemented our systems in recent times, the challenges they have faced and the benefits that they have gained since implementing them.

If you would like to present at the conference, please let us know – we’d love to hear from you! More information regarding the conference (including an agenda) will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.

With so many players and complex components making up the Settlements process, there is a real opportunity for automation. It is predicted that by automating the current heavily manual and tedious process, a bank can be expected to save up to about $50 million per year for the first five years.

Participants (including incoming and outgoing mortgagees, settlement agents, conveyancers/ solicitors, the land registry, office of state revenue and financial settlement manager) need to be able to interact electronically with each other to make online settlement bookings and share legal documents. A central electronic hub is needed for the Australian Settlements industry providing all participants with online access to complete settlement transaction information.

Just like we did with the issues of managing valuations and credit decisioning, Sandstone has developed the Settlements Management Exchange to manage this complex process.

For the sixth consecutive year, Sandstone supported the Mortgage Processing Forum held in Sydney last month. CEO Bob Hall’s presentation examined the challenges to straight through processing faced by the industry since 2005 (the first Mortgage Processing Forum) and how they have been overcome. Gazing into the crystal ball, he also provided an insight into the challenges the industry can expect to face in the next few years.

Bob’s presentation at the 2005 conference addressed the ‘Valuation Dilemma’ (the pressing issue of the time) and he described an approach our company was taking to automate valuations management. Mortgage lenders and their customers had been frustrated at the time and cost of sourcing valuations and the impact this was having on closing business and progressing loan applications. Over the years since then our Valuations Management Service has enabled lenders to reduce their Valuation costs by 50% and improve their valuation turnaround times by more than 60%.

Since 2005 a host of new valuation services have become available to reduce turnaround times and costs over the traditional “full valuation” method. The big dilemma then became: “how do we decide, and who decides, at what point in the mortgage process, what type of valuation is appropriate to maximise time and cost efficiency while meeting acceptable risk criteria?” The corresponding opportunity is to harness new online processing technology to build automated decision engines that can make these decisions in real time, and then place the order for the required valuation – all transparently to those processing the application, and the customer.

In essence the mortgage process is evolving and transforming itself as new problems and opportunities emerge, and as new technological solutions are developed. The Settlements area is the industry’s next big challenge.

February 17, 2010 — ANZ Goes Live with LendFast

ANZ is currently rolling the LendFast Loan Origination System out to selected branches as part of the first release of its new Retail Lending Automation Program.

LendFast has been fully integrated into ANZ’s enterprise IT environment including its core banking systems and branch customer service system.

The implementation of the system is expected to result in significant improvements in customer experience and significantly shortened mortgage loan processing times.

Sandstone has developed a Personal Budgeting system, myBudget, that encourages responsible banking and is being used by banks as part of their broader customer acquisition and retention strategy.

myBudget provides your customers a simple and easy to understand view of their financial position. Using real-time internet banking data, it helps internet banking users manage their finances by providing them with an easy to understand snapshot of their recurring payments, ongoing expenditure, future income and overall financial position. Their past spending behaviour can be analysed to help them establish their realistic financial position.

As a Banklink Internet Banking module, it will integrate seamlessly with your existing internet banking system.

For more information on myBudget email newsletter@sandstone.com.au.

Bank of Queensland’s (BoQ) mobile banking application was recognised as Australia’s best Mobile Commerce solution at the inaugural AMBER Awards in Sydney last year.

BoQ defeated the other finalists including Commonwealth Bank, Commsec, Greater Union and Moshtix to win the award and can now lay claim to having the best mobile banking solution in Australia, placing them ahead of rivals ANZ, Commonwealth Bank and Suncorp. Sandstone’s CEO, Bob Hall, says that seeing BoQ receive the award is a pivotal moment in the company’s history. “We have been delivering the most advanced and innovative banking solutions to our customers for over 13 years. This award is the culmination of all the hard work that has gone into developing these world class solutions.”

Finalists for the inaugural AMBER Awards were selected from a field of more than 100 organisations. These were then narrowed down based on a nationwide customer satisfaction survey and results from an independent online user experience lab testing facility.

The AMBER awards recognise excellence in eServices and highlight the leaders in Australian eCommerce. A full list of Amber Award winners can be found on the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association website (AIMIA) at http://www.aimia.com.au.