About
How we verify lenders, staff and brokers
Rates from the Consumer Data Right are collected automatically. Anything a lender, its staff or a broker publish themselves goes through the checks on this page first.
Lenders
We check the lender's ABN, its Australian Credit Licence and its web domain against ASIC's public registers.
People who work for a lender
We confirm employment through an email address at the lender's domain, verify the person's identity, and ask them to sign this declaration: “I am employed by [lender]. I am authorised to offer this pricing, and this discount complies with my employer's rules.” A person can join on their own declaration; the lender's head office does not need to sign off.
People are shown at one of two levels. Identity verified means the person has passed the checks above. Confirmed by the lender means the lender has also confirmed the person to us.
Mortgage brokers
We check the broker's firm on ASIC's public registers, verify the person's identity, and look up their Australian Credit Licence or credit representative number on ASIC's professional registers; a broker can't publish without one. They list the lenders on their panel and sign this declaration: “The lenders I list are on my panel, and any channel pricing I publish is available to customers who apply through me, as the lender has confirmed to me in writing.” A broker publishes only the price available through their channel, on their panel lenders' products, with the lender's rate sheet or written confirmation as evidence. A broker is independent of the lender.
Identity checks
We check a government photo ID, on a short video call or through an identity verification service, and compare the name with the registers above. We record who checked it, when, and the kind of document. The document itself isn't shown anywhere on Homepedia.
Credentials
A person can add professional credentials: an Australian Credit Licence, a credit representative number, an AFS licence or authorised representative number, tax agent registration, or membership of a professional association. We look each one up on the official register (ASIC's professional registers, the Tax Practitioners Board register, or the association's member directory) before it shows.
Checks lapse after a year
No check is permanent. Each identity check and each credential shows the date we checked it and the date it lapses: 365 days later, or sooner if the register says the licence ends sooner. When a check lapses, its badge comes off the person's page and the person is no longer listed on product pages until they renew it. They can renew in the last 30 days.
Each person's page
Every verified person has a page showing their institution, area, languages, the checks and credentials above with their dates, and the products where reviewed information they published is current (a broker's page also lists their panel). A person is shown on a product only while that information is current. People keep their own page up to date by signing in with their work email at /tools/manager; their name changes only through us once an identity check has started.
What they can publish
Products and corrections.Products the Consumer Data Right doesn't cover, and the correct value when a lender's Consumer Data Right data is wrong. These are labelled Lender-reported · verified. The Consumer Data Right value stays on the page beside a correction. When the Consumer Data Right data later shows the same value, the correction closes; if it changes to a different value, we show the Consumer Data Right value again until the lender confirms.
Channel prices.The price a customer gets on a specific rate when they apply through a lender's staff member or a broker, with its conditions (minimum amount, LVR, loan purpose, new customers only, refinancing only) and an end date the publisher gives. Home loan channel prices carry a comparison rate, which we recalculate on the standard basis. They appear only in the separate Registered channels part of a product page, never in rate tables, and never change the lender's published rate or the order of any table.
Checks on every submission
Each submission goes through automatic checks: format, comparison rate, whether the value sits in the usual range for similar products, whether the validity period is unusually long, and whether it matches an existing rate. Homepedia then reviews it before it goes live, and every review is recorded. Reconfirmation opens 14 days before an item lapses. Lender-reported data that isn't reconfirmed within 90 days comes down.
Removal
If a lender asks us to remove something, we remove it at once. If a declaration turns out to be false, we close the account. The person who made the declaration is responsible for it.
Labels and coverage
Lender-reported data always carries its own label and is kept apart from Consumer Data Right data. Lenders that don't publish Consumer Data Right data appear only after they complete paid verification, and the coverage note on each rate table says so.
Error reports
Anyone can report an error, free. A report marks the row Disputedand the value stays as published. When the lender's Consumer Data Right data next changes, we check it automatically and remove the mark if it matches.