When Ally and ING Direct got eaten up by big banks, they lost part of their independent consumer-centric cultures. That created a gap in the market, one that Home Trust would love to fill with its new brand, Oaken Financial.

Home calls Oaken a “direct to consumer” brand. The instant we heard that, we wondered if Oaken would launch a direct-to-consumer mortgage. So we asked Home Trust President Martin Reid.

“Not for a while,” Reid said, when asked if there were any thoughts on selling mortgages under the Oaken brand. “Longer term perhaps, but it really is a deposit driven strategy.”

“We are very happy with origination of mortgages through the broker channel and fully recognize the value add they offer through that channel.”

Home Trust doesn’t have a branch network like the Big Six banks. It’s a public company with pressure to grow, and it relies on broker mortgage origination to do that. So it would be one of the last lenders we’d expect to go direct-to-consumer on the mortgage side. Then again, anything can happen in the long run.

“On the deposit side, we see this as a major opportunity to capitalize on Ally and ING Direct being bought by the major banks,” Reid said. “This, combined with the deposit note issued last week, give us a few more tools in the toolbox to be able to grow the mortgage side of the business and offer a superior product at competitive rates.”

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Rob McLister, CMT