Newcastle Permanent Building Society (Newcastle Permanent) has extended its partnership with Athena Home Loans, investing a further $250 million in high quality mortgages.
The transaction is the second of its type since the two entities announced a strategic partnership in September 2020 through an initial $300 million deal.
Newcastle Permanent’s CEO Bernadette Inglis said the partnership with Athena, a standout in the fintech sector, is part of Newcastle Permanent’s strategy to actively pursue opportunities that leverage its financial strength and grow the business.
“We are one of the largest customer owned financial institutions in Australia, with a strong financial position and unique capital strength. This puts us in a great position to seize growth and investment opportunities, like our partnership with Athena,” Bernadette said.
“Our purpose is to help Australians purchase homes, directly through Newcastle Permanent’s own highly capable people and through our successful broker network partnerships.
“Investing in these Athena sourced, high-quality mortgages complements our own home loan business and our ability to continue to deliver value to customers,” she said.
The two organisations are aligned over their customer first approach.
“Athena has consistently demonstrated its commitment to generating high quality customer outcomes, which made continuing this partnership all the more attractive for Newcastle Permanent.”
“From the outset, we knew our organisations shared the same values and approach, and this is evident in the way our teams have seamlessly worked together over the past year,” she said.
Athena Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer (COO), Michael Starkey said the partnership is delivering growth and competition benefits.
“Athena has settled over $3 billion of mortgages since our launch in 2019 – saving Aussie’s millions of dollars in the process,” Michael said.
“We are delighted to partner with the forward-thinking and customer-centric Newcastle Permanent. This innovative deal is important in underpinning Athena’s growth and bringing more competition to the Australian Mortgage Market.”
Bernadette said she is confident future opportunities to partner with organisations in the fintech and mutual sectors will further bolster Newcastle Permanent’s position and performance.
“We’ve shown we have the appetite and the agility to take bold steps to realise growth and ensure sustainability. In a competitive industry with constantly evolving customer expectations and regulatory demands, partnerships like this have a significant impact,” she concluded.
IMAGE | Newcastle Permanent CEO, Bernadette Inglis.
