ANZ Bank says fully automated digital home loans will be able to service up to 30 per cent of the Australian mortgage market by 2024, as it prepares to start offering digital mortgages next year.

ANZ, which has been trying to recover from a period of poor performance in home lending, on Thursday said it was on track to launch digital mortgages - which could be approved in as few as 10 minutes without human involvement - in the second half of 2023.

The move will be a key step for ANZ’s new digital banking platform, ANZ Plus, which the lender is hoping can fend off competition from technology-based rivals.

Managing director of design and delivery at the bank’s digital arm ANZx, Peter Dalton, said on Wednesday that ANZ research had shown more than a quarter of customers started their home loan applications online. However, almost none of these customers completed their loans digitally because banks used manual processes to assess borrowers.

Dalton said banks in Australia and overseas were increasingly heading towards digital mortgages, and ANZ’s product would initially focus on simpler owner-occupied loans where a customer was refinancing. It plans to roll out digital loans for a wider range of customers such as property investors and loans arranged via mortgage brokers.

Loading

The bank expects that by 2024 digital mortgages will be capable of servicing up to 30 per cent of the market.

“We think that we will get to quite a viable percentage of the market - 20 or 30 per cent of the market within the first 12 months. But there will always be some things that we’re adding to it,” he said.

Mortgages are a lucrative product for Australia’s banks, and the Commonwealth Bank also unveiled plans to offer a digital home loan earlier this year as it seeks to entrench its dominant position.