Aaron Taylor, head of sales strategy and performance at Bluestone, on turning complex borrower profiles into straightforward deals
Picture the borrower a legacy lending policy was built for: one job, one payslip, one income, steady as clockwork.
That borrower profile is becoming increasingly irrelevant in modern Australia as the workforce reorganises itself around self-employed businesses, contract work, side hustles and the gig economy. As a result, the traditional PAYG borrower is no longer representative of the broader market.
These aren’t marginal borrowers scraping by, either. Many have genuinely strong earning capacity and solid financial positions – their income simply refuses to sit neatly inside the boxes a standard lending model expects it to fill.
Add higher interest rates, tax reform and a general sense of economic unease, and the case for a broker who can offer more than a rate comparison only gets stronger.
Yet lending policy is still playing catch-up. According to Aaron Taylor (pictured), head of sales strategy and performance at specialist lender Bluestone, this glaring mismatch isn’t a matter of risk appetite – it comes down to fundamental product design.
“Many traditional credit models are designed for straightforward financials and consistent income,” he tells MPA. “When income is seasonal, comes from multiple sources or linked to business performance, it can be harder for standard assessments to reflect a borrower’s true financial position.”
In other words, the borrower hasn’t failed the lending test – the lending test has failed the borrower. “That’s where specialist lending can make a difference, taking a more considered view of the borrower behind the application.”
Taylor describes a deliberate shift away from a policy checklist and towards something closer to judgement and storytelling – a reflection of the heavy weighting towards self-employed borrowers on Bluestone’s books.
"Be curious. You don’t need to become a specialist lending expert overnight” – Aaron Taylor, Bluestone
Taylor says, “Self-employed customers continue to be one of the biggest segments we see,” alongside borrowers with alternative income verification needs, those recovering from a temporary credit setback, and customers whose profile sits outside standard policy despite having every capacity to service a loan.
“These borrowers aren’t necessarily higher risk; they simply earn income differently. Many are successful professionals and business owners whose financial strength isn’t always reflected through a standard payslip or traditional lending assessment.”
None of these factors, in Taylor’s telling, makes such borrowers a bigger gamble. Bluestone – and the wider alternative lending scene – are simply reading the same borrower more accurately than a legacy lending model ever could.
Tell a story
The word ‘story’ regularly comes up in discussions with Taylor. He talks about the importance of creating a narrative around a borrower’s circumstances, rather than just looking at a credit file as a set of boxes to tick.
“Every application tells a story, and commonsense assessment allows us to understand the context behind the numbers. That human element remains incredibly important in specialist lending,” he says.
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To help simplify matters, Bluestone’s credit teams are trained to look at the broader financial position and circumstances behind the loan application. And the earlier that context reaches the right people, the smoother the deal tends to run.
It all starts with a deceptively simple action on behalf of brokers: picking up the phone.
Taylor says, “We encourage brokers to have conversations with our BDMs and credit teams early. That upfront collaboration often saves time and helps identify the right solution sooner. We’re focused on making specialist lending easier to navigate, not harder.”
He also advises brokers to give timing as much consideration as technique. Bringing a specialist lender into the conversation early – rather than treating it as a last resort once a mainstream bank has already said no – keeps more options open for the client.
“If a broker identifies early that a customer’s circumstances may sit outside standard credit policy, considering specialist lenders upfront can help avoid unnecessary declines or delays,” he explains. “The earlier brokers understand all available pathways, the more confidently they can guide their customers.”
“Every application tells a story, and commonsense assessment allows us to understand the context behind the numbers” – Aaron Taylor, Bluestone
That confidence extends well past settlement day. Rightfully so, given a loan application isn’t a finish line but a pitstop in a much longer relationship. The hallmark of a great broker-borrower relationship involves “working with the customer for a long-term plan and being there to navigate the whole term of the mortgage, not just getting them across the starting line”.
Got questions? Ask better, not more
For all the emphasis on judgement and storytelling, the method for getting there isn’t rocket science: talk to the client like a person, not an applicant.
“I’d encourage brokers to take a human approach and spend a little more time understanding what’s happening in a customer’s world,” Taylor says.
For self-employed clients specifically, that means going beyond the P&L spreadsheet and into the business itself – how long it’s been running, whether an accountant has recommended any structural changes, and how it’s held up since COVID and the recent round of tax changes.
Has the cost-of-living squeeze actually landed on their household budget? Have they ever struggled to make a repayment on time? These are questions worth normalising rather than raising as red flags. None of them replaces a credit file, but they tend to surface the details a checklist misses – the kind that allow a broker to spot an opportunity long before the numbers alone would.
“These conversations often reveal far more than a checklist ever could,” Taylor says, “helping brokers build a clearer picture of the customer’s circumstances and identify potential opportunities earlier in the process.”
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The virtues of curiosity
Bluestone has worked hard at simplifying infrastructure for brokers whose client base skews towards business owners, contractors and the self-employed, starting with alt doc lending options designed for borrowers whose income simply can’t be verified the traditional way, but whose businesses show strong cash flow and a solid repayment history regardless.
The group also invests heavily in broker training, BDM support and real-world scenario discussions, on the theory that the more brokers understand what specialist lending can actually do, the more of these opportunities they’ll be able to extract from their existing client base.
A few starting points Taylor suggests brokers use to sniff out self-employed lending opportunities in their existing books include:
- Are you self-employed, and if so, how long have you been operating the business?
- Has your income changed recently or come from more than one source?
- Have rising rates or the cost of living had a noticeable impact on your budget?
- Have you experienced a credit event or ever struggled to make a repayment on time?
Above all, Taylor advises, “Be curious. You don’t need to become a specialist lending expert overnight. Start by understanding the common scenarios that sit outside prime policy and partner with lenders who can provide support and guidance along the way.
“The reality is that most brokers already have specialist lending opportunities within their existing customer base. Think about the customers you’ve had to scale back expectations for, those you’ve been unable to help right now, or those you’ve asked to come back in six to 12 months.”
