For many years the mortgage process was largely impervious to digitisation. But following the sub-prime crisis and the growth of fintech various aspects of search and selection were digitised. From 2012, onwards an ecosystem of providers has combined to enable end-to-end digital mortgages.

History of digital mortgages

Below is the history of digital mortgages, as identified by GlobalData.

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1934 – The first modern mortgage came into being in the UK led by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

1972 – Building societies, who once dominated the mortgage market, began to lose market share.

1982 – Deregulation in the UK mortgage market led to widespread innovation and strategy diversification.

1990 – Property crisis and recession in the UK following rate rises.

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2007 – Subprime mortgage crisis.

2007 – Apple launches the first iPhone.

2008 – Bank of America Corp found not liable for $1.27bn penalty for mortgage fraud.

2010 – Basel III agreed by the members of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision.

2012 – Blend, launches in the US offering a data-driven approach to mortgage closing to banks.

2015 – Trussle, the first online broker to set up in the UK, launches.

2015 – Quicken Loans launches RocketMortgage.

2015 – Indiabulls Housing Finance launches first end-to-end digital mortgage loan sanction in India.

2016 – Better Mortgage launches in the US; within two years surpasses $1bn mortgage in origination.

2016 – Online brokers Habito, Burrow and MortgageGym launch in the UK.

2017 – United Wholesale Mortgage took part in first completely paperless mortgage, driving a 28.5% increase in its origination volume.

2017 – QuickenLoans surpasses Wells Fargo as he largest originator of mortgages in the US (Q4).

2017 – Redwook Bank launches focused on mortgage lending to SMEs.

2017 – OCBC in Singapore launches the first artificial intelligence-powered home and renovation loan specialist, Emma.

2018 – Google launches Google Home to compete with Amazon Alexa.

2018 – TD Bank launches new digital mortgage experience using Roostify’s digital lending platform.

2018 – Bank of America and Wells Fargo roll out new digital mortgage applications using vendor Blend.

2018 – Molo launches in the UK as first end-to-end digital mortgage lender.

2018 – Capital One exits the mortgage market in the US.

2019 – Tesco Bank exits the mortgage market citing “challenging conditions”.

2019 – UK’s HM Land Registry’s digital service ‘sign your mortgage deed’ adopted by 16 lenders.

2019 – Digital lender Social Finance rebrands its mortgage business as SoFi Home Loans.

2019 – US Bank launches new mobile app supporting digital mortgage applications.

2022 – Amazon offers mortgages for SME customers.

2023 – Pension funds and insurers challenge UK banks on lending volume.