Octane and Oblix boost credit teams with senior hires

Barlow (pictured) joins Oblix from Lloyds Banking Group, where she was head of credit for UK wealth and international mortgages.

In her role at Oblix, she will oversee the department’s activities to make sure lending potential is maximised while credit risk is minimised.

At Lloyds, Barlow led teams focussed on credit sanctioning and portfolio management.

She has more than 25 years’ experience in strategic, credit management practices within the UK’s real estate sector.

Barlow said: “I’m looking forward to helping the team develop the lending book, ensuring we can safely match the ever-increasing demand from intermediaries and direct clients.”

Rishi Passi, CEO, Oblix Capital added: “Caroline is a welcomed addition to our executive team, she brings extensive credit knowledge and experience at a time when Oblix is going from strength to strength and I have no doubt her knowledge will play a vital role in helping us continue to provide a consistently solid service to the market.”

Octane hires House

Donna-Louise House has joined Octane Capital as senior credit manager.

She will report into Matt Smith, the lender’s director of risk.

House most recently worked at Falcon Bridging Finance as head of underwriting, after holding the same role at LendInvest.

She will work with the expanding Octane risk team to get more loans into the market.

House said: “I’ve known Matt and the senior Octane team for many years now and when the chance presented itself I leapt at the opportunity to work with them all.”

Matt Smith, director of risk at Octane Capital, added: “Donna is exactly the kind of driven and entrepreneurial underwriter that we want at Octane, someone who is not just technical but commercial — something all brokers want to see.

“Her experience is second to none and there’s no doubt that she will hit the ground running and further speed up our turnaround times.”