Challenger bank Monument builds lending team

The team will develop its lending proposition, which focuses on BTL and bridging loans with initial lending up to £3m. It will focus on “delivering a better experience” for busy professionals, experienced landlords and brokers.

The team is led by head of lending Conor McDermott, who joined the firm from Arbuthnot Latham where he worked for around three years and headed up the specialist lending team.

Prior to that he worked at Allied Irish Bank for around a year as a senior relationship manager, and before that worked at Metro bank for nearly three years, most recently as commercial banking director. He has also held senior roles at Santander and RBS.

Savvas Nicola will take on the role of relationship manager. He previously worked at United Trust Bank for just under a year as structured finance underwriter.

Before that he worked at Metro Bank for nearly five years, most recently as a commercial bank manager. He previously worked at Lloyds for around eight years in various senior roles.

Edwin Yamoah and George Chipperfield will provide credit support. Yamoah worked at Magna Money for just under a year and before that worked at Santander for more than 12 years.

Chipperfield was previously a commercial analyst at Metro Bank for nearly two years and before that worked at LendInvest as a development finance associate for just over a year.

Orlagh Mangan takes on the role of operations manager. She was at Aviva Investors for around a year and before that worked at Metro Bank for around two years in several manager roles.

Jo Vudali will be a senior underwriter, and previously worked at Shawbrook Bank for around three years and before that worked at Metro Bank for more than four years.

Mintoo Bhandari, chief executive and co-founder of Monument, said: “We are delighted to have assembled such a highly experienced team. We believe we have the ideal blend of experience and skill, but also that each individual shares our passion for delivery and service excellence.

“We will continue to enhance our human, technological and operational capabilities, to become the first challenger bank in the UK to meet the unmet demands of over four million professionals, property investors, entrepreneurs and others that are seeking a bank to help them save and grow their wealth.”

McDermott (pictured) added: “We are really pleased with how our proposition and approach has been received by the market in these early stages. Each of us saw the opportunity presented by focusing on the needs of this particular segment of the market.

“The technology we have built and which we will further enhance brings much needed efficiency, speed and transparency to what can often be a frustrating experience for landlords and brokers. We are all looking forward to redefining what service means in this space.”

The bank received its full banking licence in November and said it would focus ‘mass affluent’ client market, targeting professionals, entrepreneurs and property investors. It estimated there were around 4.8 million people in this position.

At the time, the firm had raised around £60m in capital, having completed a Series A funding round earlier in the year. It added that it was in the process of another fundraising round, which is set to close shortly having raised more than £20m.