Know Your BDM: Stuart Jones, Cambridge and Counties Bank

What locations and how many advisers and broker firms do you cover in your role?

Home for me is Northampton, and I work through Birmingham, the East of England, and the City of London, with most of my broker relationships in the South, Hertfordshire into London. 

I have eight to 10 core firms, which allows me to ensure a high and credible level of service can be maintained. Working at Cambridge & Counties’ allows flexibility for me to work with my relationships across the country, with the main objective being service level.

How have you changed the way you establish and maintain a good relationship with brokers in the pandemic?

I’ve worked with my core relationships for many years, and the pandemic help build this. We remained open for business throughout the pandemic, which meant I was able to support where others had withdrawn. Working together in the challenging market built on these strong foundations.

What personal talent/skill is most valuable in doing your job?

Credibility and deliverability. Throughout my career I have worn a number of lending hats from origination, structuring, recoveries and credit risk. This gave the experience needed to work with brokers to structure credible applications for their clients. 

What personal talent/skill would you most like to improve on?

My golf handicap. Seems an uphill struggle.

Where would you rather be stuck, in bumper-to-bumper traffic or back-to-back Zoom calls? 

Well, that depends on who’s in the car with me. But in all seriousness, 100 per cent Zoom.

What’s the best bit of career-related advice you’ve ever been given?

Maybe not career advice exactly, but my Pap was a seasoned carpenter, his advice was “measure twice, cut once”, and while I am some way from building a staircase, I adopt this when it comes to anything from emails to lending terms: check twice and execute.

What has been your lockdown coping strategy?

Plenty of fresh air, walks and wine.

If you were head of the FCA for the day, what would you change about regulation in the mortgage industry?

I’d like to plead the fifth on this one.

What was your motivation for choosing business development as a career?

Two things. The first was that every application is slightly different and from that there’s continuous learning. The second was the satisfaction from helping an SME, supporting their business and providing them with a commercial mortgage that fits them completely.

If you could do any other job in the property sector, what would it be and why?

It would be the initial interacting and brokering an application. That said, the most enjoyable part of my current role is reviewing, structuring and mitigating risks.

What did you want to be growing up?

I suspect it was a racing car driver, but it does feel like a lifetime ago.

What’s your favourite face mask design/pattern to wear?

Traditionalist, blue and white medical mask.

And finally, what’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?

“Daddy, should it be this colour. . ?”