Lenders unconvinced over Lixi loan standards

Established in 2001, the Lending Industry XML Initiative, or Lixi, aimed to develop electronic communication data standards for the Australian mortgage lending industry, and although progress has been made, stagnation has crept in recently.

Helping to address the issue, Lixi has appointed Erik Fenna as the first full-time chief executive officer effective the beginning of September, after three years serving on the voluntary Lixi board.

Fenna highlights the project approval process within some member groups as the major issue in moving the electronic standardisation process forward.

"The companies that have not been successful living up to these expectations are the lenders."

Fenna adds brokers have driven the majority of implementations to date, but pressure needs to be applied to lenders to continue to help develop the Lixi standardisation process going forward.

"We need to encourage the lenders to work out how to do what they initially said they wanted, as there is a great opportunity there for lenders to get efficiency gains.

"There has been a lot of confusion in people's minds about the value that standards can deliver, and that's where the white paper comes in."

Consultancy firm Brand Management was commissioned by Lixi to research and write the white paper, with an executive summary of the findings released at yesterday's annual Lixi industry forum in Sydney.

Findings included that senior bankers interviewed as part of the research were aware of Lixi and its role in the industry, "… but there was a vast difference in their understanding of what Lixi did, what its goals and ambitions were and its relevance in the industry.

"The broad consensus of the interviewees was that Lixi would not provide internal efficiencies to the industry, and the interviewees were evenly split on if Lixi would reduce costs overall."

"What we are showing with the white paper is that the value (in Lixi compliance) is huge. Especially when compared to the licensing and membership fees, the value dwarfs the cost of participating in Lixi," adds Fenna.

Fenna is referring to the potential eleven per cent savings ratio for home loan processing costs, delivering a $107 million saving to the industry in the last year alone, which is calculated in a working model published in the report.

The need for Lixi to '… once again communicate its goals, intentions and the concept' was also highlighted in the white paper.