Leek United Building Society has restructured its mortgage intermediary support team, separating the business development and mortgage processing functions in a bid for market share.
The move is a bid to improve processing response times and deepen broker relationships.
Head of customer operations, Lilian Starkie, said: “We aim to build on these relationships by placing more emphasis on the business development role of our mortgage consultants, who will offer support by telephone and email. In addition, we will also be out on the road visiting locally-based brokers and some of the big broker networks to raise awareness of what we offer and how we can assist them.”
Business development function will be managed by Clare Beardmore, Leek’s head of marketing and sales products.
Beardmore said: “We have listened to feedback from our intermediaries who tell us that they like the personal service we offer. By developing these relationships further, brokers will become more familiar with our requirements and the type of lending we will consider.”
The mutual said it has added a number of efficiencies to its mortgage application processes to speed up servicing with more to come.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
