Best Mortgage Innovations in Australia |
5-Star Mortgage Innovators 

Unsatisfied with the status quo, the Queensland-based firm has intentionally made a point of standing out.

CEO Boban Jurisic says, “We really want to be that disruptor in the market by providing exceptional service. You can see that from some of the awards that we’ve won over the years.”

Infinity’s rapid rebate program is a product of that innovative spirit, as it allows clients to pay off their mortgage in less than 10 years.

“It’s a program we’ve created specifically to empower our clients,” Jurisic says. “It drives budgeting, debt reduction and wealth creation through property. It’s exciting, and we have a subprogram that allows clients to pay off their mortgage in less than 10 years.”

The firm has taken it a step further by partnering with one of the largest banks in Australia.

Jurisic says, “What we have agreed is that they will put our debt reduction schedule into their mortgage documents once the loan is formally approved. So, when the clients get the mortgage documents, it says, ‘You can pay off your mortgage in less than 10 years if you do this.’”

Another element of the company’s ability to innovate has been strategic alliances and partnerships formed over the last 12-24 months, notably with Forbes Australia, where they will be running a series of articles to showcase the firm’s prowess.

Infinity also runs high-level events, with founder and director Graeme Holm presenting on stage with famous names such as Tony Robbins and Richard Branson.

“We talk about financial empowerment, education, debt reduction and all kinds of stuff with some of the biggest celebrities in the world,” says Jurisic. “It’s been an exciting journey for us.” 

“One of the biggest focuses for me as CEO is to focus on technology innovation at all levels, and that’s effectively what we’re doing”
Boban JurisicInfinity Group Australia

Masters of their own destiny

An indicator of how successful Infinity’s innovations are is that at its last Christmas party, of the 800 clients invited, 400 were in the top 1.83% of national wealth, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Jurisic says, “That gives an indication of our clientele and what we do for our clients in terms of empowering them on their wealth creation journey and debt minimisation.”

The foundation on which Infinity’s success is based is their innovative thinking, which led to the creation of their custom software platform. It’s a client portal that integrates with their internal platform, allowing individuals to manage:

• assets and liabilities
   

• bank accounts
   

• review goal performance
   

• book events
   

• access learning material
   

• communicate with staff
   

• receive monthly automated reporting

“Agility is everything, and removing constraints is especially important if you’re constrained by third-party tech providers; they have their own SLA. We want to remove that struggle,” says Jurisic. “We want to be masters of our own destiny.”

Additionally, having a custom platform is also a valuable tool for staff, resulting in 85% of the time saved generating reports that are shared with clients.

Jurisic says, “It increases responsiveness, efficiency and proactiveness. It also allows us to identify opportunities. Whether it be a refinance, a cash out or the ability to purchase more properties, this portal allows us to pull all that data and really gives us triggers for our guys to talk to a client to say, ‘You’ve got a certain amount of equity in your home; have you thought about buying an investment property? Or have you thought about refinancing to a lower rate?’”

Other areas Infinity has plans to extend its technology into:

• AI chatbots
   

• phone technology
   

• webinar technology

Jurisic says, “We’re not just a mortgage broking company; we do property, we do events and we do a number of different things. It’s all finance, and we provide a holistic solution to our clients. AI is playing a huge part in a lot of that; it’s early days, but we are looking to innovate to get ahead of the curve in the finance industry.”
 

The firm has supercharged its innovation over the past three years by recruiting director and COO Craig Thompson, who now leads a team of 11.

He explains the construction of the tech infrastructure from the ground up in stages:

• CRM: “It gives our BDMs the tools to manage over 4,000 brokers dealing with issues such as certification or accreditation. It was one of the grounding and foundational pieces that we needed to do.”
   

• Polaris origination system: “We have the ability to support a range of mortgage products and mortgage solutions for our brokers, and we have full control over the IP and the actual roadmap into the future. We’ve built this end-to-end digital platform to ultimately change the customer experience, and we see our customers as our brokers and borrowers.”

The firm’s pace of innovation is not slowing, it is going to release a new broker portal featuring a dashboard with all the information the broker needs to perform a borrower health check.

Thompson encapsulates what all the systems and tech are trying to achieve, underlined by Brighten’s promise to provide SLA responses within 48 hours.

He says, “Ultimately, it’s what the broker wants. They want a consistent and enjoyable experience, which is what we’re aiming to deliver; we want to ensure that no relationships are enriched, that we ultimately get them the answer they need, and as soon as possible.”

Further solutions Brighten utilise are systems to:

• check for credit
   

• run identity checks
   

• detect fraud

“We have feedback loops that allow us to, instead of having to contact the broker directly or the broker having to contact us wondering where we are, we’re making it more visible,” Thompson says. “The broker has the tools to know exactly where they are – something like Uber Eats, where you know where your pizza is.” 

“There are a lot of better-funded players out there, but pound for pound, Brighten is really quite an impressive organisation. Our technology enriches both the broker and customer experience’”
Craig ThompsonBrighten Home Loans

Constantly refining

In the past 12 months, Brighten has launched three new products.

Thompson says, “We send surveys, ask questions and we listen to that. Last year was a story of bringing a comprehensive suite of lending products designed to not only support PAYG customers but also the self-employed and expats. What we are doing is actually offering products that are very popular but aren’t very common.”

• Resident Construction Loan: Catering to Full Doc Prime, Alt Doc Prime and Expat borrowers, this product features a unique, seamless post-construction conversion process. After construction completion, the loan automatically converts to a standard Full Doc Prime, Alt Doc Prime or Expat loan, ensuring customers benefit from more competitive rates without needing additional paperwork, typically within 9-12 months.
   

• Non-Resident Construction Loan: Echoing the resident construction loan’s innovative approach, it was created for non-resident customers with foreign income. It addresses the unique challenges faced by this demographic, offering tailored solutions.
   

• Bridging Loan: Specifically designed to alleviate the stress and uncertainty often associated with buying and selling properties simultaneously.

A new loan servicing solution has recently been brought online. This is another part of the efficiency that Brighten’s innovations are delivering.

Thompson says, “It’s effectively like a core banking solution for our borrowers. They can log on, look at their mortgage, do a redraw if necessary and interact with our customer service team, which is a new feature. They’re able to do a bit more self-service than our previous solution could.”

The ingenuity around the firm’s technology and how it has been constructed to enable Brighton to flourish, as Thompson explains.

“Our platform is highly composable, which means it’s like a bunch of Lego pieces that all connect to each other in the most efficient way,” he says. “It’s highly scalable, very secure and cloud based. Plus, it allows us to pull information from anywhere.”
 

The past year has been a watershed for the firm, the product of a 2021 merger between online home loan platform Lendi and Aussie, Australia’s largest retail mortgage brokerage.

A major milestone of the merger was completed in 2023 when Aussie’s 1000 brokers transitioned onto the group’s proprietary technology platform.

Lendi co-founder and CEO David Hyman says, “It wasn’t a matter of simply reskinning a piece of technology and rolling it out to our Aussie brokers. Instead, hundreds of brokers, team members, engineers, developers and more were required to collaborate over an extensive period to ensure new, fit-for-purpose technology could be developed.”

Going live on Platform has also unlocked the group’s pioneering support model, Platform Plus to Aussie brokers, providing access to the following innovations:

• Associates: Company-generated leads are contacted by a centralised team of sales associates, who pre-qualify these customers and book them directly into an appointment with a broker. Prior to the appointment, associates or the customer are able to upload pay slips and other important documentation into Platform, so the broker can have solutions-focused conversations from the outset.
   

• Client solutions: Agents are subject matter experts with one to two lenders, and their intimate knowledge of policy is seeing Lendi achieve RMIs at half the industry average. CS agents are also able to update customers on application status via the platform on the broker’s behalf.
   

• Journeys: Customers who are not ready to transact at the time of enquiry or appointment are placed into a nurture journey where they receive ongoing bespoke communications relevant to their situation via email, text and associate phone calls.

Industry data indicates that the average loan now takes more than 20 hours of broker time to process. However, with innovations like Platform and Platform Plus, the firm’s brokers are achieving lodgement speeds up to four times less than the industry average.

“Being a product-led sales organisation means the product experience is at the centre of our world. This commitment to creating exceptional product experiences for our brokers and customers has our people constantly thinking about how we can be better, fostering a culture of innovation’”
David HymanLendi Group

Listening and learning

Another standout initiative implemented at Lendi Group has been the quarterly planning process.

Hyman says, “It’s designed to align teams and stakeholders across the organisation towards a shared vision and set of objectives for the upcoming quarter. Our teams come together to review and discuss the current state of their work and the products or systems they are developing. They collaborate to identify the most valuable features, prioritise work items and establish a roadmap for upcoming projects.”

An analysis of Lendi Group’s web traffic showed a significant volume was coming from mobile devices; hence, the firm has created the Aussie app.

“We know our customers are active on mobile, and we saw the opportunity to meet them where they were with an aesthetic, functional, mobile-first experience,” says Hyman. “The product discovery phase ran for a period of six months throughout 2023, as we built, deployed and validated our very first concepts with brokers and prospective users, ultimately delivering our first beta-app version in September.”

There was a process of refining and iterating, enabling the app to launch fully this year, providing a comprehensive, customer-ready digital experience.

Hyman says, “What makes our approach unique is the collaborative culture of innovation that we have cultivated, where ideas are encouraged, creative thinking is nurtured and our people are empowered to develop hypotheses and take smart risks.” 
 

Best Mortgage Innovations in Australia | 5-Star Mortgage Innovators