More about who is the bank’s ideal client and what to do if you are “an odd-shaped cookie”, read in a conversation with Movin credit specialist Gunta Martemjanova.

Every day you listen to customer stories and hear their concerns and experience in order to find the best mortgage solution for them. What determines whether you are the perfect candidate for a housing loan?

The lender is always evaluating whether a customer can afford a mortgage. Both the current financial situation and your ability to make monthly payments in 10 or 15 years are assessed. Traditionally, such profile is best matched by regular company employees with income in EUR, people who have worked at a given workplace for 18 months or more and are 25-45 years old.

Steady monthly income demonstrates financial discipline, a long-term workplace – stability, and age – employment potential. Such borrower is considered the least risky, and therefore an ideal candidate.

Who are the people who don’t fit this “cookie mold”?

The self-employed and the entrepreneurs. Customers who receive income in other currencies or have recently returned from work abroad and just started work in Latvia. Young people who have started their careers relatively recently, customers older than 45 years, non-residents who want to buy property in Latvia.

Consumer groups like these – with insufficient access to banking services – are described by the term “underbanked”. In some cases, it is due to low income, however, the above-listed cases show inflexibility of the banking sector and its inability to adopt to the changes in the consumer behavior fast enough.

More and more people want a healthy work-life balance, more free time, more flexible work hours than the traditional 9:00 to 18:00. Therefore, the number of self-employed is growing. Instead of fixed monthly income, people choose to work on projects, or work remotely for foreign companies and receive income in other currencies. Labour mobility is growing, young people choose to travel and work abroad for a while. We live longer and continue to work long after the retirement age.

All these changes require a review of the current borrower’s eligibility assessment practices, and the banking sector is not always ready to do so. As a result, an absurd situation arises that many eligible borrowers can’t qualify for a mortgage because they do not fit the “perfect” profile.

One recent and memorable example in my practice is an entrepreneur who couldn’t qualify for a housing loan, while an employee of the same entrepreneur got approved without hesitation.

Is there a solution to this situation? What can really be done?

Recently FinTech companies are on their rise all over the world. However, it’s not only the technology that has paved their way to success. FinTechs focus on needs that the banking sector can no longer meet – speed, ease of the process, and access to service.

This is precisely how mortgage landing platform of Movin works. We use technology to make the application process for housing loans simple and fast, and we combine it with modern mortgage programs that don’t attempt to put clients in predefined “molds.” Housing loan is a financial product that shouldn’t be reserved for only a few. It should be widely available.

We focus on the client and his story. The loan officer thoroughly studies each case and finds the most appropriate solution for both the “perfect” borrower and the self-employed.