The acquisition of Symple is aimed at helping Latitude’s profits by allowing it to retire legacy technology systems that are about 20-years-old, slashing its loan approval times, and offering a wider range of products.

Latitude, which listed earlier this year, has grown to become Australia’s second largest provider of personal loans behind Commonwealth Bank, but it is facing competition from the likes of Plenti and SocietyOne, which have much newer technology systems.

“We’ve overtaken everybody and we’re doing really well in this space, but we’ve consciously been aware that there’s a whole bunch of fintechs all coming up, who are also attacking, but they’re attacking on systems built in the last two to three years,” Mr Fahour said.

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