Winners of first-ever Mortgage Business Awards revealed

The glittering black-tie gala awards ceremony was held this evening (27 April) at Sofitel Melbourne, with the support of principal partner, Resimac.

The awards championed the top performers in Australia’s booming mortgage distribution space, including mortgage brokers, aggregators, lenders, innovators, technology providers, and staff servicing the channel.

Over 300 members of the industry attended the ceremony to cheer on 21 winners, who were chosen out of 109 finalists.

The awards included four individual categories, seven group categories, six innovation categories (including one individual category), and four technology categories.

Sydney-based actor, voice artist, and professional MC Nick Bartlett assumed emcee duties and provided light and laughter throughout the evening.

Individual awards

Metropolitan and regional brokers were acknowledged for their hard work and dedication at the awards.

The Mortgage Broker of the Year – Metro award was given to Mortgage Choice Williamstown mortgage broker Jonathan Lee for a strong focus on people and business management, providing good examples of using workflow to prevent burnout.

Newcastle-based Money Links director Brenden Lowbridge won the Mortgage Broker of the Year – Regional prize, with judges calling out his strong ethos in building his team and mentoring others to ensure a fantastic client outcome.

Phenomenal numbers, a client-centric approach, and a focus on automated funnel and process saw Mortgage Pros senior mortgage broker Peter Ha win the New Broker of the Year award.

Loan administrators were rewarded for their efforts, with South Australia-based Johnston Grocke mortgage administrator Jim Elliot winning the Loan Administrator of the Year award.

The Innovator of the Year – Broker award was given to Kanebridge Capital Pty Ltd director Marwan Rahme for creating a feature on his website that shows real-time rates and products.

Group categories

Brokerages, aggregators, and lenders were also celebrated for their successes in the group awards.

Mortgage Choice (headed by Anthony Waldron, chief executive, Financial Services and Mortgage Choice, REA Group) was named Aggregator of the Year. 

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia [CBA] (with Adam Croucher in the role of third-party banking general manager) was named Major Bank of the Year.

The Mutual Bank of the Year award went to Great Southern Bank (which has Mathew Patterson as head of broker), while the Non-Bank of the Year trophy was given to Firstmac (headed by managing director Kim Cannon).

Suncorp — whose third-party channel is led by head of broker partnerships Troy Fedder — won the Non-Major Bank award.

Broker Essentials’ director and multi-award winner Jason Back walked away with the Service Provider of the Year award for increasing membership by 10 times and implementing robust online programs.

Innovation in focus

Innovators were applauded for thinking outside the box, with the Innovator of the Year – Aggregator award presented to Finsure (headed up CEO Simon Bednar) in recognition of its technology push and first-mover achievement in offering open banking to brokers.

The Innovator of Year – Brokerage award went to My Mortgage Freedom (headed by CEO and founder Anthony Alabakov and director and co-founder Sean Murphy) for the Rate Tracker innovation that helps borrowers stay on top of their rates and notifies them when a better rate is available.

The awards also acknowledged lender innovation, with the Innovator of the Year – Major Bank award going to NAB (where Nicole Triandos is the head of broker distribution), which has been busy building its tech stack for brokers and hastening the mortgage and SME finance process.

The Innovator of the Year Non-Major Bank award went to Bankwest (where Ian Rakhit is in the role of general manager, third-party banking), with judges again calling out its move towards digitising the loan process.

Pepper Money (headed by CEO Mario Rehayem) was the recipient of the Innovator of the Year – Non-Bank award, with its Product Selector Tool and out-of-the-box solution thinking winning it the award.

Awards celebrate tech platforms

The players behind technology and market platforms in the broking industry were recognised for their achievements, too.

The Broker Technology Platform of the Year award was presented to lender serviceability calculator tool provider Quickli (headed by co-founders Eric Dill and Angus Keatinge), which has been winning the hearts (and business) of many brokers recently.

Pepper Money had another reason to smile after bagging its second award — Lender Technology Platform of the Year.

Among the marketing and CRM platforms, Loan Market walked away with the Marketing & CRM Platform of the Year – Aggregator/Major Brokerage award for its mammoth efforts in combining the best of the Podium and MyCRM systems and helping its broker members make the most of an efficient technology offering.

Finally, BrokerEngine (co-founded by mortgage broker Craig Vaughan) was named Marketing & CRM Platform of the Year – Technology Provider.

Resimac general manager, distribution Chris Paterson congratulated all of the winners and said the non-bank lender was thrilled to be the principal partner for the Mortgage Business Awards.

“As the frontline of the mortgage industry, we know how important it is to support, recognise and encourage excellence from the lenders, aggregators and brokers in our industry,” he said.

“At Resimac, we’ve built our business off the back of the strong relationships we have with our customers, brokers, aggregators, wholesale partners, investors, shareholders, and other business partners. This is a theme that carries through to the Mortgage Business Awards, where a crucial part of demonstrating excellence is through strong relationships.

“The Mortgage Business Awards brought together well-known groups throughout the industry and gave us a much-needed occasion to connect and deepen those relationships.

“Coming off the back of a difficult few years where many of us were isolated due to the pandemic, we appreciated this opportunity to come together with our peers and celebrate our achievements and successes in person.”

Congratulations to all the winners.

Click here to view the full list of winners.

For more information about the Mortgage Business Awards, click here.

You can hear more from Resimac’s Chris Paterson and why championing excellence in the third-party distribution space is important to Resimac in the Mortgage Business Spotlight podcast, here: 

[Related: New date announced for Mortgage Business Awards]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.