Mortgageport was founded in 1998 as a residential mortgage manager. It’s portfolio currently stands at around $A1 billion.
After negotiating a wholesale funding facility with a regional bank, Mortgageport appointed AMAL as primary servicer to the program.
As well as back-office operations and access to AMAL’s governance, risk and compliance infrastructure, AMAL was able to provide Mortgageport with a tailored technology platform that included:
The Banksia Financial Group was placed into receivership in late 2012 owing $660 million to around 15,000 investor, primarily in regional Victoria.
The Kyabram-based finance and investment company had 14 branches across three states and raised money primarily via issuing debentures.
In April 2013 the receivers, McGrathNicol, sold approximately $240 million of predominantly performing loans to an arm of Deutsche Bank. AMAL was appointed primary servicer of the portfolio and began an integration process as part of a three month transitional services agreement (TSA).
While on face value the portfolio appeared to be relatively straightforward, the combination of an internally developed loan system and a high level of product customisation outside of the documented specifications, resulted in a higher than usual level of due diligence, analysis and testing.
AMAL was able to successfully integrate the portfolio within the TSA timeframe and is now working closely with the all stakeholders to maximise the return to the purchaser.
Following the sale of its residential mortgage business to NAB in 2009, Challenger went to tender for the servicing of the Challenger Howard Mortgage Fund.
The portfolio of $A1.6 billion comprised over 1,800 commercial loans across a wide range of property types and locations.
Following success in the tender process, AMAL was able to integrate the complete the integration within a limited eight-week period, which included the Christmas period.
One of the requirements of the outsourcing was that Challenger maintain its own servicing system and that AMAL provide hosting and support services. Challenger staff then access the system remotely for origination, settlement and collections functions, while AMAL staff access the system for day-to-day servicing functions.
Similar to many AMAL provides Challenger with a branded call-centre for day-to-day borrower contact and provides a white-label program for all other regular communications.
In 2003, GE Commercial Finance purchased approximately $700 million of commercial mortgages in Australia and New Zealand. The portfolio was originated by GIO, the majority of which was acquired by AMP in 1999.
AMAL successfully tendered for the servicing of the portfolio and established AMAL New Zealand Limited in Auckland to service the New Zealand loans.
The implementation required an extensive integration with GE’s IT platforms, including local and US portfolio reporting systems and regional finance systems in Tokyo.
The portfolios were run down over the following years, with the last loan discharging in 2011.
At the request of GE, AMAL maintained the servicing platform and in 2013 they originated over $A600 million of new commercial loans.
MiFund was founded by medical professionals in Sydney Australia in 2015. The company was conceived with a vision to bridge the gap between Australians and optimal treatment by providing patients with a range of loan and payment plan options.
MiFund approached AMAL to provide a highly-tailored servicing solution that involved integrating with MiFund’s own origination platform as well as allowing for the transfer of data across the nationwide network of participating practitioners.
Since the implementation of the platform over 1,000 loans and payment plans have been originated.
This was one of the most challenging integrations AMAL has undertaken. The portfolio comprised over 12,500 small-ticket operating and commercial hire purchase leases (of which approximately 4,500 were in long-term arrears), a number of unfamiliar systems and limited access to existing staff.
Following nine months of receivership and a number of failed attempts to sell the portfolio the receiver, PriceWaterhousCoopers, elected to put the servicing of the book out to tender, to enable maximum recovery for the funders, which included National Australia Bank, Societe Generale, ANZ and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
Following success in the tender process AMAL was able to interview and select from the existing operations and finance staff, recruit an experienced new collections team, negotiate with systems providers and manage the relocation of the business to AMAL’s premises. This process was completed on a very tight schedule of four weeks.
After six months of working on the portfolio, AMAL was able to stabilize the operations, undertake extensive reconciliations and adjustments, restructure the funder payment process to improve efficiency and transparency and reduce the arrears by two-thirds.
Metro Finance is an Australian owned and independent prime commercial auto and equipment lender established in 2009.
After securing a significant warehouse from a major Australian bank, Metro approached AMAL in 2014 with a view to implementing an efficient and scalable servicing infrastructure.
This included integrating with Metro’s origination platform to allow for a highly automated settlement functionality, critical given the number of daily settlements contemplated by the company’s growth plans.
Since that time Metro’s portfolio has grown to in excess of $A430 million, representing over 11,100 receivables.
In 2014, Fisher & Paykel Finance (now known as Flexi Cards) launched its Q Card receivables securitisation program, which was the first term securitisation of credit card receivables in the Australasian market for several years.
The pool consisted of over 160,000 active customers with an average balance of approximately $NZ2,500.
A crucial component of the ratings process was the implementation of an effective Servicer Transition Plan and Back-up Servicing Manual.
After an extensive due diligence process AMAL developed a tailored program that was signed off by all stakeholders and included:
Geneva Finance is a New Zealand-owned finance company that provides finance and financial services to the consumer credit and small to medium business market.
Along with many finance companies in New Zealand the onset of the GFC left Geneva without the ability to repay existing debenture-holders and in 2007 the company entered into a moratorium, owing investors over $NZ132 million.
Since that time Geneva has significantly restructured its operations and in August 2013 secured a $NZ30 million credit line from Westpac. This loan, combined with an injection from existing shareholders has seen the company finalise its obligations to investors and exit the moratorium.
A key condition of the Westpac facility was that AMAL New Zealand (AMALNZ) be appointed as back-up servicer, in order to mitigate the risks to Geneva’s ability to continue its recovery.
AMAL was able to satisfy Westpac with the implementation of a relatively intensive back-up structure with a high level of involvement in the transaction documents and binding agreements with key systems vendors.
In 2015, Deutsche Bank, KKR and Varde Partners completed the acquisition of GE Capital's Australian and New Zealand consumer finance business, now called Latitude Financial Services.
Latitude has over 2.5 million customers and offers a broad range of finance products including personal loans, credit cards, insurance and interest-free promotional and retail offers.
Across Australia and New Zealand, the Business currently employs more than 2,200 staff and services its customers through a network of retailer partners, brokers, phone and the internet.
AMAL worked with stakeholders to develop a comprehensive Servicer Transition Plan and Back-up Servicing Manual that incorporated the following items:
In 2011 Pepper Homeloans purchased $A5 billion of residential loans in Australia and New Zealand from GE Capital as it exited the Australian residential market.
The purchase was financed through Pepper’s senior lenders; Westpac, CBA and NAB, while mezzanine funding was provided by Deutsche Bank, York Capital Management, Varde Partners and MKM Capital. A key criteria of the funding program was the appointment of an experienced back-up servicer.
AMAL was appointed back-up servicer to the six trusts containing the loans which, added to the two trusts for which AMAL was already back-up servicer took the total number of loans to in excess of 30,000.
The Servicer Transition Plan and plan developed by AMAL needed to cater for two different servicing platforms and a range of stakeholder requirements. Components include:
The exit of Lloyds’ subsidiary Bank Of Scotland International (BOSI) from the Australia market led to the sale of a number of portfolios of distressed commercial property debt, two of which AMAL was appointed as servicer.
The first was a portfolio of $A700 million of Queensland-based loans know as ‘Project Paterson’, which was purchased the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund (MSREF). The loans related to 14 properties, predominantly located in South East Queensland, including the Oracle Broadbeach twin-tower development (in receivership), the Southport Central project (in receivership) and Juniper Group’s Soul apartment project (not in receivership).
The second portfolio of approximately $A1.7 billion was purchased by a consortium including Morgan Stanley, Blackstone and Deutsche Bank. This larger portfolio comprised loans on 69 properties, including the Meridian Marina at Airlie Beach, Spencer Street Fashion Station and the Pentridge Prison redevelopment in Melbourne.
Critical to both servicer transitions was for AMAL to provide a complete reconciliation of every loan-tranche since inception. This task was made even more complicated by incomplete and/or incorrect data provided by the outgoing servicer.
AMAL was able to successfully complete the reconciliations within the required timeframe, upload all historical transaction information to the servicing system and is now providing all stakeholders with accurate data and reporting for recovery actions.
