Publication Date: Tuesday, 19 October 2021
This article originally appeared in Mortgage Professional Australia

Tech veteran will strengthen company’s digital lending capabilities

Non-bank lender Brighten Home Loans has announced the appointment of Craig Thompson as chief technology officer. In his new role, Thompson (pictured above) will be responsible for strengthening and growing the company’s digital lending capabilities.

Thompson joins Brighten from financial services group MA Financial, where he served as head of technology. His mandate to strengthen Brighten’s digital lending platform will support the company’s expansion, the non-bank said.

“Brighten is delighted to be welcoming Craig Thompson to our growing leadership team of industry experts,” said Scott Kelly, managing director of Brighten. “Known for being a highly adaptive, results-driven and innovative technology leader with expertise in developing and implementing IT strategies, Craig’s strategic approach supports Brighten to offer our brokers and customers a superior service proposition assisted through our innovative technology capabilities.”

Earlier this year, Brighten announced a partnership with Simpology to digitise its entire loan application process, integrating Simpology’s e-lodgement tool with its proprietary loan origination platform. The integration supports the direct flow of information between brokers and customers at different steps of the application process,” Brighten said. 

“What excites me the most about this opportunity is that Brighten is not encumbered by the obstacles that entrenched banks face when it comes to legacy systems and processes,” Thompson said. “The possibilities to develop on existing digital initiatives that Brighten has implemented to its broker and aggregator network, enhancing what’s already an incredibly compelling market offering.”

Brighten said that its diversified funding from multiple sources of institutional capital give it the flexibility to design new home loan products. The lender recently launched a construction loan offering available for self-employed home buyers seeking an owner-occupier or investment mortgage using alternative documentation as an option. Brighten offers full-doc, alt-doc and construction loans available to prime and near-prime, resident and non-resident borrowers.