Better Home & Finance Holding Company (NASDAQ: BETR), operating as Better.com, has launched a new Bank Statement Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) program designed for self-employed borrowers and small business owners who do not meet traditional W2 underwriting criteria. This initiative leverages the company’s AI-native home finance technology to expand access to home equity for a segment of the population often underserved by conventional lending processes.
The Bank Statement HELOC program aims to serve over 36.2 million small business owners in the United States by offering an alternative income verification method. Borrowers can now qualify for a HELOC using 12 or 24 months of personal and/or business bank statements instead of requiring tax returns, P&Ls, or W2s. Better.com’s AI platform, Tinman®, analyzes these statements to determine income and P&L trends, facilitating a nearly instant underwriting approval. The program further streamlines the process by not requiring a physical appraisal and simplifying title insurance for loan amounts up to $400,000.
Vishal Garg, CEO and Founder of Better.com, stated, “Better’s HELOC customers consolidated $193 million in high-interest debt, generating an average monthly savings of $1,120 in Q2 2025.” He added, “Unlike traditional home equity lenders who operate on multiple fragmented and outdated point solutions, Tinman® AI has been trained to detect alternative sources of data and automate verification without the need to review endless stacks of PDFs. Now that we’ve established the processes with our AI to deliver a seamless customer experience to small business owners across America, we’ve brought the Better Bank Statement HELOC to market.”
Amid rising American household debt, with credit card rates exceeding 27% and personal loan rates over 17%, HELOCs average around 8%, positioning them as a tool for debt consolidation. Internal data indicates that debt consolidation through HELOCs has contributed to improved credit scores for Better customers, particularly those in lower FICO bands, who observed an average increase of 37 points, with gains ranging from 25 to 60 points. The Bank Statement HELOC aims to extend these benefits to self-employed households with strong credit and cash flow who previously faced qualification hurdles.
Chad Smith, President and Chief Operating Officer of Better Mortgage Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Better, commented on the program’s potential impact. “With Better’s new Bank Statement HELOC, we believe we would have been able to capture over 6,000 customers that were previously denied — that translates to $600MM in home equity loans we could’ve helped fund had this program been in place. This point of pain is why we developed a new product, that will allow us to lean forward, help more customers, and continue to catalyze our growth as one of the fastest growing AI native home equity lenders in the country, growing over 150% year over year.”
The Bank Statement HELOC program is designed for small business owners, freelancers, independent contractors, and gig economy workers. It also targets professionals with significant business expenses that reduce taxable income, borrowers whose income has recently grown but is not yet reflected on their latest tax returns, and clients with complex income patterns requiring a flexible qualification approach. The streamlined pre-application experience is powered by Better’s AI-driven Tinman® platform.
Customers can also access the program through Betsy™, Better’s AI loan assistant, by posing the question, “Can I qualify using only my bank statements?”, making the service available 24/7. With the Tinman® AI platform, customers can receive approval in as little as three minutes and cash in as little as seven days by applying online at better.com/heloc.
Better Home & Finance Holding Company, an AI-native mortgage lender, has funded over $100 billion in loan volume since 2016. Its Tinman® AI platform enables customers to view rate options in seconds, obtain pre-approval in minutes, lock in rates, and close loans in as little as three weeks. Betsy™, a voice-based AI loan assistant, provides application status updates and answers questions around the clock. Better offers GSE-conforming, FHA, VA, and jumbo mortgage loans, and in January 2023, launched the “One Day Mortgage” program for eligible customers. The company serves customers across all 50 US states and the United Kingdom.
