Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) has promoted Ben Merritt (pictured) as director of mortgages, taking over from Chris Irwin who had been in the role for nearly two years.
Irwin has worked at YBS for nearly 10 years, joining as acquisition risk manager and then working his way up to director of mortgages. His next role is currently not known.
Merritt has worked at YBS for over 11 years, starting as a branch manager for the society’s network and was most recently a senior manager for group mortgage acquisition.
He has held several senior roles at the mutual, including senior product manager for intermediary mortgages and mortgage product manager.
Prior to YBS, he worked at Cattles PLC for around three years as a senior account manager and before that he was a sale consultant at Insurety Brokers for around a year.
Merritt said: “It’s a privilege to be responsible for delivering the Group’s lending ambitions, and I’m looking forward to building further on the great products and propositions we have to help people buy and keep a place to call home.”
HTB promotes Sedgwick
Hampshire Trust Bank has promoted Louisa Sedgwick to the role of managing director for specialist mortgages.
She initially joined the firm in October as a deputy managing director for specialist mortgages.
Before that she worked at Vida Homeloans for nearly five years, most recently as managing director for mortgages.
She previously worked at Leeds Building Society for around two years, spending a year as head of intermediary distribution and around a year as head of corporate accounts.
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
