According to information on a Bluestone UK underwriter’s LinkedIn page, mortgage business will include applications “in the specialist market, including adverse credit or unusual circumstances”.
The firm is described as “a brand new lender in the UK mortgage market”, but Bluestone could not provide details on a launch timescale when contacted.
It also says it plans to support the “development of mortgage intermediaries/sales channels” in order to achieve board determined lending targets.
In March, Macquarie Group completed financing support to the Bluestone Group following its acquisition of the UK mortgage lending and servicing platform, Basinghall Finance.
The acquisition of mortgage assets and securities-related service contracts will form the core Bluestone’s UK mortgage division.
Following its purchase of Basinghall, Alistair Jeffrey, Bluestone Group’s executive chairman said: “We intend to work with the Basinghall team over the coming months to integrate the business into the broader group, and re-establish a residential lending program.”
Three underwriters have been recruited from Metro Bank to work in Bluestone’s UK mortgage department, which will be led by Jason Finch, previously head of mortgage underwriting at Metro and head of lending services at Platform.
Additional recruits include David Chapman and Daniel Thorne, also former underwriters at Metro Bank.
Matt Andrews is managing director at Bluestone UK, having previously held roles including CEO at RG Debt Management Topco and managing director for B2C mortgage sales at Merrill Lynch.
Bluestone Group was founded in 2000 and its European firm is organised into two divisions, Bluestone Capital Management and Bluestone Portfolio Management. The group has issued over £2.5bn worth of mortgage backed securities since 2002 and currently operates as a specialist residential mortgage lender in Australia.
The firm’s UK headquarters are based in Cambridge and it also has offices in Sheffield and Ireland.
Bluestone was unable to provide any further comment at the time of writing.
