Steve Griffiths has been appointed Kensington and New Street’s sales and distribution director, as redundancy talks continue with 25 staff on both brands.
“New Street has achieved the mortgage volumes we expected despite being a very new brand,” said Street (pictured).
“But there’s been some learning and we’ll take that on board. The changes in the taxation position probably wasn’t a time to launch with all the turmoil in March and April. Equally, lots of brokers stuck to the lenders they’d been dealing with for some time. If we’d had a crystal ball we might have made a different decision in terms of the launch timing,” he said.
He added that a simpler marketing message and further technology testing would have helped the lender in the bedding-in phase.
“We have very supportive parents and we’re very ambitious. We are just as committed as ever to our long-term goal,” added Street.
Northview Group’s distribution director David Finlay and New Street’s sales and distribution director Adrian Whittaker both exited the buy-to-let lender in mid-July after just four months of the pilot. Alex Hammond, Kensington’s head of marketing and communications has also gone to join Castle Trust in September, and will be replaced by Tim Sinclair, previously senior head of marketing and retail sales for Al Rayan Bank.
Kensington Group, which owns Kensington Mortgages and Acenden, rebranded to The Northview Group in January this year with New Street launching in February.
Private equity partners Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and TPG Special Situations Partners completed the buyout of Kensington for £180m in September 2014.
Keith Street, head of Kensington Mortgages (pictured), was appointed to the role of vice chairman across the group at the start of the year and will oversee the management overhaul of the company.
Street said Kensington is still examining opportunities in the ‘light-credit impaired’ arena for example for mortgage prisoners who have suffered a single credit event alongside new build, shared home ownership and self build.
