The mutual’s Mortgage Referrals Committee, which meets daily, is formed of six senior staff to consider complex and niche mortgage applications and enquiries from brokers.
The panel is made up of chief executive Chris White, deputy chief executive Andrew Payton, operations director Dean Waddingham, head of sales and marketing Carolyn Thornley-Yates, mortgage operations manager Julie Chapman and mortgage services manager Martyn Shortland.
Quirky cases
Thornley-Yates (pictured) said putting six senior decision makers in the team demonstrated the lender’s commitment to lending whenever possible.
“On first hearing, some mortgage applications look like they won’t make the grade; they are the quirky ones, the complex cases, the niche requests that would be immediately rejected by automated and inflexible lenders,” she said.
“What intermediaries want with a complex case is to know it has been given a fair hearing.
“The six people on our new committee know the mortgage business inside out and can provide a nuanced assessment of mortgage applications and broker new business enquiries that are a break from the norm. If we can lend, we will,” Thornley-Yates added.