Mortgage News
Ben Thompson leaves mortgage club in Legal & General reshuffle
In further changes at Legal & General, a reshuffle at the mortgage club sees an exit from its managing director Ben Thompson to an insurance role, with current director of housing and external affairs Stephen Smith appointed director of mortgage club and housing.
Ben Thompson is moving within L&G to the insurance sector to become director of banks and affinities.
Stephen Smith and mortgage club director Jeremy Duncombe, who joined the club in April 2013, will continue to lead L&G’s key distribution tool the mortgage club.
Stephen Smith said: “Ben increased the mortgage market share from 9 to 28% of the market since he joined the club in 2007. This is the January transfer window and our star player has moved up to a bigger team.
“But we have an exciting future and an improving market to look forward to,” he added.
“The Legal & General Mortgage Club is central to our strategy in the housing and mortgage markets, bringing many benefits and value to various parts of the group. Growth and innovation will continue and we are looking forward to a robust market recovery and to helping our partner firms through next year’s regulatory change. We have an exciting future and an improving market to look forward to.”
Thompson said: “I am delighted and excited with the challenges of my new role and look forward to the opportunities that it presents. I would like to thank the many friends and colleagues that I have worked with over the years who have made the Club so successful and also thank the members and lenders of the Club for their loyal support. I am proud that the Club is a leader in a recovering market and with intermediaries well placed to go from strength to strength.”
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As part of the overall group reshuffle, Sue Pennington head of field sales for the mortgage club and product manager Martyn Smith will exit the group.
Smith said: “We’d like to thank them for all the unstinting hard work they have done over the years.”
Head of L&G network Duncan Crocker was replaced by Martin Noone in October after three years in the role, as part of of a wider group integration of the mortgage distribution, savings and protection businesses.
Crocker told Mortgage Solutions he made the “daunting and exciting” decision to step back and retire from executive life to explore the non-exec directorship and charity worlds.