Montreal Tech Watch

SmartHippo announced this week they have added 200 lenders to its database of mortgage lenders/brokers. 

SmartHippo uses a mix of data scrapping from public web pages, with also partnerships with mortgage lenders. Having more of of those lenders means more choices for mortgage shoppers, who can also add reviews and ratings to those lenders. As you might know (or not), the goal of SmartHippo is to bring more transparency, public data and interaction, all of which were absent in this market.

George Favvas, founder of SmartHippo, believes that more transparency and voices of consumers is what the finance industry needs (or needed?). Here’s a video of him at finnovate2008:

SmartHippo focuses on the U.S. mortgage market, and indeed, if there’s a time to bring change to the market, it’s certainly it. One could ask questions though how they align themselves to the announced current plans and acts in the U.S. aimed at revolutionizing how the housing market works. Their announcement does not address that; while it appears to me that it’s the elephant in the room. I’d wish they had an evangelist or a rep touring the US, which would connect daily to the dire issues in the field, getting local stories. Or maybe they do… I guess that’s something hard to gauge when looking at a company which does all of its business in a foreign market.