PEXA, the fintech behind the world’s first digital property exchange process, completed the UK’s first ever digitally enabled remortgage transaction in an important milestone in its mission to streamline the property remortgage and completion process. Hinckley & Rugby Building Society was the first UK lender to complete a remortgage using PEXA’s entirely new digital exchange and payment system, and the conveyancing was undertaken by national law firm Muve.
The transaction, which took place at approximately midday today, leveraged PEXA’s newly developed exchange platform and payment scheme, PEXA Pay, to expedite what has historically been a technical and laborious completion process, in minutes, rather than days. Using the new technology, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society and Muve could orchestrate financial settlement directly from the incoming lender’s (RT) account, and could seamlessly collaborate to lodge the application for registration with HM Land Registry.
PEXA Pay is the seventh active payment system in the UK, and has the Bank of England acting as the settlement service provider. Following the successful transaction, PEXA will soon be onboarding Shawbrook Bank as an additional partner. Further lenders and conveyancers are due to be announced throughout 2023.
PEXA’s system has been designed to transform the remortgage process to improve customer outcomes, and improve capacity in the conveyancing market. PEXA’s recent research showed that as many as one in five (20%) mortgage borrowers looking to remortgage in the past two years have found the process so difficult or complex they abandoned it altogether [1]. Improving this process is critical in a market where interest rates are rising, and financial outcomes for consumers will be significantly impacted by a constrained ability to remortgage quickly. PEXA’s new centrally connected platform reduces the associated time, risk and costs in the remortgage process for consumers, lenders and conveyancers alike.
Building on the successful development and implementation of its remortgage platform, PEXA aims to broaden its focus to deliver a transformed sale and purchase process in 2024. The company’s expansion into the UK market follows its success in Australia, where it has facilitated over 13 million property transactions worth circa AUD $2 trillion.
James Bawa, PEXA UK Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Our mission is to transform the property market for consumers, lenders and conveyancers. The completion of the UK’s first digitised remortgage transaction marks a major milestone in this journey, and acts as a tangible proof of concept for the wider industry.
“The successful launch of our new platform is a testament to the openness to innovation and collaboration we have seen from the Government, Bank of England and the wider lending and conveyancing industry in the UK. Not least, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society, which has provided early and consistent support, and is now the first to benefit from our platform.
“This is just the start. We have invested significantly into the UK to develop and embed our technology to help drastically improve the remortgage process. We know from the Australian experience just how significant and widespread this transformation can be. We will continue to invest and work with industry to roll out our platform more widely, so that we can help bring about better consumer outcomes, making a stressful and delayed remortgage process a thing of the past.”
Colin Fyfe, Chief Executive Officer, Hinckley & Rugby Building Society, comments: “We are always keen to work in collaboration with key partners who are digitally focused and forward-thinking, to create a modernised and more efficient way of working. PEXA’s proposition of a streamlined, digitised mortgaging process provided the perfect opportunity for us to extend our own internal capability and expertise, to help deliver the pioneering property exchange platform to the UK, following its huge success in the Australian market. “Our staff have been working closely with PEXA on the design, testing and implementation of the PEXA platform and it has been a privilege to be the first UK lender to undertake a PEXA transaction and to settle the remortgage funds via the new PEXA Pay scheme. We will continue to invest in supporting PEXA on their journey and to deliver the best possible service for our customers and our staff.”
David Jabbari, CEO, Muve, added: “We are delighted to be partnering with PEXA at the very start of their journey into the UK market. The PEXA platform has the technological and financial sophistication to change how conveyancing transactions are settled in the UK. We are very proud to have worked with the Hinckley & Rugby Building Society on the first transaction, and look forward to many more.
[1] In March 2022, PEXA commissioned research company to Opinium to survey 1,000 UK consumers that had remortgaged within the last 24 months.
Press contacts
Max Chason; Issie Rees-Davies | MHP
E: pexa@mhpc.com
