Macquarie's Wendy Brown looks back on a 12 months that will shape broking industry for years to come
As the year comes to a close, MPA catches up with the biggest names in mortgage finance to get the lowdown on the year that was, while looking towards the year ahead.
In this installment, Wendy Brown, Macquarie Bank’s head of broker sales, looks back on one of the biggest years for the broking industry in recent memory.
What were the trends that defined the mortgage industry in 2025?
2025 was a defining year for the industry, with the first rate-cutting cycle in over five years fuelling greater buyer confidence, a surge in refinancing activity and a wave of new entrants joining the market. This sparked fierce competition across lenders, who have been shifting their strategies in ways that will define the landscape in the year ahead.
The noise around channel conflict at the major lenders reached fever pitch, with the broking industry somewhat caught in the crossfire. But homebuyers continued to vote with their feet, with the MFAA reporting a new record of over 76% of all new residential home loans settled by a mortgage broker.
2025 was a year in which the need, and consumer preference for, personalised advice from brokers was underlined. Despite shifting strategies from many of our peers towards the broker industry, we’ve remained consistent and intentionally different. Doubling down on brokers again this year has really paid dividends for us.
What were some of the biggest highlights for Macquarie over the year?
We now represent nearly 7% of the Australian market. Over the last year, we represented 21% of total home loan market growth and grew ~4 times the average of Australia’s major banks. In a highly entrenched market, this is a huge achievement and great recognition of the significant investment we continue to make in our leading digital broker and customer experiences.
Whilst the approval times across many of our peers have gone backwards this year, we continued to reach new heights. A particular highlight was some of our applications submitted by brokers processed in as fast as 13 minutes. These industry-leading turnaround times have been made possible by our technology investment and are particularly pleasing given the strong demand we’re seeing across the market.
With all the focus on rate cuts, we were also really proud to be the fastest major lender to pass on RBA rate changes to our customers this year. Changing our processes to make this happen in just three days compared to an industry average of 12 days was huge. I am glad we did it, because the response from customers and brokers has been fantastic.
Retaining both the MFAA Major Lender of the Year and MPA’s Bank of the Year 2025 awards was a proud moment for us this year, and another demonstration that what we’re doing is resonating with our broker partners.
On a personal level, what were your career highlights over the year?
For me personally, the incredible talent and strength of our whole broker team ecosystem have been a particular highlight this year. It’s been wonderful to expand our business development team by 20%, welcoming new colleagues across Australia to support our growth.
Another big highlight was launching our ‘Built for brokers, loved by customers’ advertising campaign nationwide, to encourage Australians to speak to a mortgage broker. We’ve been very vocal for a long time about the value that brokers bring to Australians, and we’ll continue to shout it from the rooftops.
Looking ahead, what factors will influence the mortgage space in 2026?
I think everyone will be keenly watching to see what happens with interest rates in 2026. It’s likely they will have a big influence over the mortgage landscape, both directly through mortgage pricing and indirectly via housing demand.
We also expect continued competition across the market. Over the course of the year, we’ve seen commentary from some lenders saying they are pricing below their target returns. It will be interesting to see how that evolves into 2026.
Do you see the mortgage lending space becoming even more competitive?
We believe the home loan market will remain highly competitive. We note that many lenders have offered cashbacks for a number of years and we’ve seen a lot of examples this year around our peers focusing more heavily on their proprietary channels, with retention strategies and discretionary pricing becoming more common practice.
With industry reports also showing how brokers facilitated a record number of settlements this year, 2026 will certainly bring some interesting dynamics in the lending space.
Are there any major milestones coming up for Macquarie in 2026?
In 2026, we’ll continue to enhance the Macquarie Broker Portal, our one-stop digital hub giving brokers intuitive workflows, real-time application tracking, streamlined document collection and instant visibility on next steps, all intentionally designed to speed up turnaround times and reduce follow ups.
How are you personally spending the Christmas season?
I’m looking forward to thinking a little less about work and spending time with my family by the beach in Queensland. But I’m pleased we’ll also be open over the holiday period for our broker partners. There are no cut-off dates, and we’ll be assessing applications within our normal processing times because we know the end of the year can still be a busy time.
