Latitude Group will acquire start-up Symple Loans, attracted by the fintech’s “state of the art” lending platform and the prospect of halving settlement times on personal and auto loans.

Following completion of the A$200 million deal, Latitude’s $2.5 billion of personal and auto loans will be transferred to the Symple platform.

Describing Symple’s platform as “using advanced analytics and proprietary risk-based pricing techniques to deliver simple digital experiences to customers and brokers,” Latitude 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.

Symple was founded in 2018 by Bob Belan and Paul Byrne, both former ANZ executives. Both will take senior management positions at Latitude.

Symple’s pitch has been a simple digital experience, fast approvals and same-day settlements. It has $53 million of receivables.

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.

It expects to complete the transaction in the December quarter.