Publication Date: Friday, 22 October 2021
This article originally appeared in Australian Broker

Brighten Home Loans new chief technology officer Craig Thompson has spoken of his desire to use tech to meet broker pain points and smooth the loan application process as he takes up his new role at the lender.

Thompson told Australian Broker that it was vital for lenders, especially non-banks such as Brighten, to offer tech-first solutions to broker problems in the mortgage space.

“I wouldn’t have taken the role without being completely confident around the leadership that I’d be working with and the ambition that they have when they speak about the future,” said Thompson, who was previously at MA Financial. “It was an opportunity that I couldn’t miss out on, so I’m super pumped and really excited.”

“When I applied for a mortgage, I think of how painful that process was, and when anyone thinks about mortgage lending or any application, you have those negative moments where you think that it’s going to be difficult.”

“If you take a look at where Brighten is on their digital journey, since inception four years ago, you know that there has been incredible improvements and enhancements made. My role is about strengthening and building on what they’ve done so far.”

“For me, it’s about driving those efficiencies and using the tech that is available to us. In terms of the digital architecture, it’s all about delivering something for the future.”

Brighten Home Loans has already partnered with e-lodgement solution Simpology to help smooth processes, and now Thompson is looking to take that to the next level by introducing tech solutions to human problems.

“Take a step back and think about where loans are slowed down,” he said. “Think about all the people, all the manual processes, the checks, the verifications and the decisioning. It’s all of those areas that you find add to the journey of a broker and customer looking to get a result quickly.”

“Those are the stumbling blocks, and for me, there’s not enough automation. I’m very familiar with robotic process automation and what it can do, and the ability for software to be what we call ‘digital workers’, programs that run in the backend and speed up processes.”

“They can reduce the number of times that information is entered into the system, and when that information is entered. We’re going to be partnering up with a number of specialists that detect fraud, help with verification and then leverage emerging tech like AI to help with decisioning.”

“For me, it’s a combination of partnerships, building out our platform and then leveraging that newer tech.”