AN POST HAS reached out seeking “prospective partners” as it looks to enter the Irish mortgage market.

It wants to deliver “a competitive and market-leading end to end digital home-buying proposition” in the future, and this partner must offer “an innovative home-buying and financing capability,” the company said. 

Earlier this year, it was announced that post office closures would affect every county in the country with the exception of Dublin with An Post saying that the closures were necessary to secure the future of the network. 

A report delivered to the government late last year presented an “uncertain and extremely bleak” prediction for the future of An Post, and it’s been pinpointed on a number  of occasions  that it needs to diversify and expand the services on offer in order to survive.

Minister for Communications Richard Bruton has said that the company is aiming to grow the financial services it offers in new year, including credit cards, personal loans as well as a mortgage package. 

In a request for information issued earlier this week, An Post said that now it has said it would enter the mortgage market, it needs to analyse it and “understand the nature, structure, capacity and capability of the market” fo fulfil its requirements. 

From first time buyers, to movers to re-mortgages, the growth in this market offers An Post “an opportunity to create a range of propositions that resonate across all segments with favourable economics,” it said.

The company has also pinpointed potential areas where it could exploit gaps within the existing market. 

“In addition, within the Irish market there is no clear lender that has adopted its credit underwriting policies to cater for the changing needs and requirements of the current and future workforce in Ireland,” it said.

With the growing self-employed workforce, the emergence of the ‘gig’ economy along with the growing number of employees working for multinationals with varied payment structures that have evolved from the traditional PAYE structure there is a growing requirement to facilitate what might be termed ‘nonstandard terms’ for home loan credit.

It concludes that it is open to varying partnership structure models and wants to hear from potential partners on the risk and reward sharing models. 

Suppliers interested in taking part are encouraged to complete the questionnaire on the e-tenders site by 30 January 2019. As it is a request for information, An Post said it does not necessarily follow it will enter into a contract with a partner following this notice.