Capital One Financial‘s purchase of online home-equity lender eSmartLoan for $155 million on December 14 (press release), should increase the level of innovation in this market in the coming years.

eSmartLoan originated about 12,000 home equity loans in 2004, totaling more than $1 billion, just two-tenths of 1% of the national total of $431 billion according to SMR Research Corp. The 2004 total was up more than $100 billion (35%) from the $320 billion in home-equity loans were originated. 

Under its previous owner, National Bank of Kansas City, the online lender was willing to lend up to 125% of the home equity (LTV).

If you’d like to learn more about the how to optimize online lending, check out the latest report on the subject from our sister publication, the Online Banking Report.