Listed non-bank lender Homeloans Ltd has embarked on a business transformation program following its merger with Resimac two years ago.
At the annual meeting in Sydney on 26 November shareholders will be asked to support a resolution to change the company name to "Resimac Group Limited" as part of a wider move to unify the branding of the company's flagship mortgage products.
The brand overhaul follows a twelve-month review of the multi-brand strategy, which identified shortcomings in efforts to deepen market awareness of the Homeloans moniker.
In notice papers for the annual meeting sent yesterday to shareholders, the board said it believed the Resimac brand had greater potential to drive growth across retail and wholesale distribution channels.
"The board considers that the Resimac name bears considerable brand value that can be effectively leveraged across corporate and retail audiences," directors said in the explanatory memorandum.
"The new Resimac brand will encompass the majority of the company's existing and future operations in Australia and New Zealand."
Homeloans' joint chief executive Mary Ploughman said the company planned to begin migrating customers to the new brand on 3 December.
While the Homeloans name will no longer be used to marketing loans through brokers, it will continue to be used for distributing mortgages via the homeloans.com.au website.
"We're not getting rid of the Homeloans brand altogether, but we need to consolidate our marketing to brokers to eliminate confusion," Ploughman said.
Brand consolidation will be the first stage of a business expansion aiming to diversify the company's presence in the retail financial services market.
In February, the company recruited former Westpac and CBA securitisation guru Michael Maloney to advise senior executives on strategies for diversify in retail financial services.
At Homeloans Ltd, Maloney's official job title is "head of acquisitions", which appears to indicate that the company is looking to augment its product range by buying other specialist businesses.
Ploughman declined to comment on whether a personal loan product would be the first move to grow outside of the mortgage market.
"Our strategy is to broaden beyond home lending," she said.
"We want to leverage our strengths in the consumer market and securitisation. We're looking to diversify into assets that share those attributes."