More borrowers changing investment loans to owner-occupied

Rising interest rates causing an increase in customers changing loans to owner-occupied...AMP invests in two fintech start-ups

More investors changing loans to owner-occupied
In response to rising interest rates on investment loans, banks are reporting an increase in customers changing their investor home loan to owner-occupied, according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. 

As investors rates are now higher than owner-occupiers for the first time since the 1990s those who are living in properties that they may have rented out previously are taking steps to ensure they are being recognised as owner-occupiers.

Yellow Brick Road mortgage broker David Ryman warns some borrowers in this situation may be caught out if they don't alert their bank to the change.

"People are very dormant in relation to their finances. When changes like this happen, most people don't even know what interest rate they are paying, let alone whether they should be on a different type of rate," Ryman said.

"There would be plenty of people who are unaware of the change and are basically sitting on a rate that's higher than it should be."
 
Feeling time-poor? 8 ways to get more done in fewer hours
In depth: Top broker Joshua Vecchio shares his eight tips to obtain the win-win of achieving more in less time.

AMP invests in two fintech start-ups
AMP's investment in fintech start-ups Macrovue and MoneyBrilliant aim to draw new clients to its financial advisors and further its offerring to self-managed superannuation funds, the Australian Financial Review reports.

The deals, sealed through a specialist unit AMP New Ventures, are part of multi-million dollar investment plans to support start-ups and give AMP an advantage from digital distruption. 

AMP has invested $1 million into Macrovue which is creating an online platform offering thematic investing plans, making it easier for SMSFs to access global equity markets, the newspaper reports. 

And AMP invested $1.5 million into MoneyBrilliant which is a platform to help users management their budget, profiling their spending patterns to ultimately improve their financial literacy. 
 
Last year's Top 100 on how they hit the bulls eye
In depth: We look back at some of last year's contestants and what they said were key contributers to reaching the top 10 of the list.