Habit Factory, 1 Year Since Establishing US Corporation... "Saved Customers 8.9 Billion KRW in Interest Costs"

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Habit Factory, a fintech startup based on MyData, announced on the 11th that it has saved a total of 8.9 billion KRW in customer interest expenses within one year of launching its U.S. subsidiary business.

Habit Factory USA, established in January last year, provides the home mortgage loan service Loaning.ai. Habit Factory explained that assuming 1 USD equals 1,300 KRW, the total loan amount achieved over the year was 37.1 billion KRW. The interest cost customers must pay when using a 30-year mortgage is 45.9 billion KRW. If the same product is used through other companies, the interest cost would total 54.8 billion KRW, resulting in a savings of 8.9 billion KRW compared to competitors. This amounts to 164 million KRW per person.

The average interest rate provided by Loaning.ai so far is 6.056%, with the lowest rate at 3.625%. Compared to U.S. lending financial institutions such as Rocket Mortgage and Wells Fargo, Loaning.ai offers rates that are on average 0.5% to over 2% lower.

When Habit Factory entered the U.S. market, non-English-speaking immigrant communities had to rely on certain small brokers due to language barriers. Meanwhile, mainstream U.S. banks and mortgage companies were investing in digitizing financial processes. However, Habit Factory identified that due to existing high-cost structures and low productivity, processing times were not shortened and loan interest rates did not decrease.

Habit Factory utilized data and artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the time required to verify loan eligibility from 3 days to 1 minute. Soon after, they introduced a real-time mortgage rate inquiry function developed through their proprietary AI process. They noted that this feature was significant as it had not been attempted by major U.S. banks.

Additionally, through functions such as ▲Mortgage Calculator ▲Refinancing Calculator ▲Loan Fee Calculator ▲Loan Calculator, customers can conveniently check the lowest interest rates, monthly repayment amounts, and total repayment amounts on the website. The number of calculator executions has reached approximately 60,000.

Lee Dong-ik, co-CEO of Habit Factory and head of Loaning.ai, stated, “By utilizing technology and data to transform existing business processes into a low-cost structure, we are achieving meaningful results,” and expressed his ambition, “Loaning.ai, as Habit Factory’s global financial platform, will continue to pursue changes in the mortgage market and the interests of customers.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.