Latitude Group has completed its acquisition of Symple Loans, announcing that it will begin the integration process immediately.

Latitude was attracted to the digital personal loan start-up by what it described as its “state of the art” lending platform and the prospect of halving settlement times on personal and auto loans.

Symple’s loan origination system will become the platform for all Latitude personal and auto loans.

Latitude said its current “time to cash” is an average of 4.5 days for settlements. Its post-transaction target is an average of two days. It said the biggest driver of lending performance is time to cash.

Describing Symple’s platform as “using advanced analytics and proprietary risk-based pricing techniques to deliver simple digital experiences to customers and brokers,” Latitude said it will also use it to launch new products and build partnerships with other lenders.

It expects the Symple platform to deliver $24 million of cost savings in 2022/23.

Symple’s North American operation will give Latitude a foothold in the personal loan market there. It also has plans to expand into the auto loans business in New Zealand.

Latitude will pay for the acquisition with $100 million of cash and an issue of 38 million shares, in a deal worth $200 million.