Amex Partners With Better, Rocket Mortgage On Home Loans

Those looking to get home loans will now be able to do so through American Express (Amex) and its new partnership with two FinTechs, Better and Rocket Mortgage by Quicken Loans, CNBC reported Wednesday (June 30).

Those who are Amex customers who get mortgages from those companies will be able to access a statement of credit for $2,000 for conforming mortgages or $6,000 for jumbo mortgages.

Amex’s spokesperson clarified that this doesn’t constitute a revenue-sharing agreement, only that the partner offers will now be available for cardholders.

The partnerships have come about because of a mortgage offering pilot that originated in 2019.

And the new perk for cardholders reflects a broader trend, in which the financial institutions have partnered with startups for the offering of new outside-the-box services. CNBC noted that this is something of a “sign of the times,” with the U.S. economy reopening not seeing a change in the priorities of those who have wanted to stay home and own a home over the pandemic.

D.A. Davidson analyst Chris Brendler, speaking to CNBC, said this saw Amex expanding its services outside its usual travel-focused partnerships and is now going into more financial service partnerships.

Charles Birnbaum, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, told Karen Webster last year that the new trend would likely see more FinTechs partnering with more established companies. That came as a surprise because years ago, everyone was trying to “unbundle” by breaking away from large conglomerates and focusing on honing just one particular service.

But he said FinTechs always had the intention to add more services and that the next wave was always going to be some companies like Shopify bundling again with financial services.

That has also been happening with big companies like Apple, Google and Facebook, which added financial services, along with other companies like Square, which added consumer lending to its arsenal along with stock and crypto trading. Square, according to Birnbaum, had an edge because it also had distribution.