As CEO of Brighten, I’m proud to reflect on an extraordinary year. In 2024, we achieved significant milestones that show our commitment to brokers and borrowers alike. Our loan applications increased 130 per cent compared to 2023, while broker accreditations surged. Brighten is now on most major aggregator panels, with more exciting partnerships to be announced in 2025. We are proud of the growing trust brokers have placed in us and take our obligations to repay this trust seriously.

Throughout the year, we have sought constant feedback from brokers, listening to their needs and responding with solutions designed to help them thrive in a complex market. Every enhancement we made to our products, policies, and technology was driven by a single goal: to cement our position as the lender of choice for brokers.

Building a stronger team

February marked my first full month as CEO and, from the outset, I saw the incredible potential of our people. This year, we expanded our workforce by 20 per cent, attracting a number of outstanding high performers from established peers. Our investment in talent, including the expansion of our business development manager team nationwide, has strengthened our ability to provide brokers with tailored, on-the-ground support. Recognising the talent within our own ranks, we also made several key leadership promotions, ensuring we have the best people in place to drive Brighten’s growth in 2025 and beyond.

Innovating products and policies for a dynamic market

Navigating today’s high-interest-rate environment has been a challenge for everyone, but at Brighten, we have responded by delivering over 15 policy enhancements and product innovations, including market-leading rate promotions to assist brokers to fulfil customer needs. This year, we expanded our product suite with offerings such as our alt doc construction and jumbo bridging loan. Our full suite of products caters to a wide range of borrower needs, ensuring brokers have solutions for almost any client scenario.

We are constantly seeking to enhance our broad range of products. We have increased our maximum loan size to $5 million across residential and bridging loans and removed clawback on our market-leading alt doc construction loans.

Leveraging technology to enhance the broker experience

Policies are just one piece of the puzzle and, in looking at how our brokers interact with us, we began to introduce and refine our technology platforms to simplify workflows and increase efficiency. Our servicing platform enhanced our customer’s post-settlement experience, and our proprietary origination system, Polaris, has materially enhanced our credit assessment process, much to the delight of brokers, in our monthly surveys. Furthermore, our partnership with Quickli assists brokers to quickly identify Brighten products as market-leading across the entire breadth of our product spectrum.

We also launched our Broker Portal, introducing real-time application tracking, a digital servicing calculator, and seamless document management. Finally, we expect to integrate NextGen’s ApplyOnline® prior to Christmas which will greatly enhance the broker application experience.

Breaking records

In October, we achieved a major milestone with the successful completion of our largest RMBS transaction to date, Orion Trust 2024-1. Initially launched at $500 million, the deal was upsized to $700 million due to overwhelming demand, attracting a number of high-calibre new investors.

This achievement is a testament to the growing confidence in Brighten’s brand and strategy. As we continue to scale our originations and capital market programs, we remain committed to fostering investor relationships that support our ambitious growth plans.

Looking ahead

As we close out 2024 and look toward 2025, our mission remains to provide the most extensive range of home loan products for brokers and borrowers, supported by an easy-to-deal-with experience. With the recent launch of our commercial lending products, we are excited to offer brokers even more diverse solutions to help brokers and their clients succeed.

The journey we have been on this year is just the beginning.