Steve Griffiths has been appointed to the role of commercial director for retail mortgages at Shawbrook, taking responsibility for both The Mortgage Lender (TML) and Bluestone Mortgages.
Announced at a conference held by TML in London last week, Griffiths (pictured) said Shawbrook’s retail mortgage division will include the two lenders, which will continue to operate as separate brands.
He said the “differentiation” would be maintained as they served different types of customers, but if there was any crossover, they would consider offering similar propositions across both.
TML will continue to primarily serve buy-to-let (BTL) borrowers and those residential customers that require a more straightforward solution, while Bluestone will cater to borrowers who may need “a bit more hand-holding” through their cases, Griffiths said.
“We are looking at what fits best to each brand,” he said.
Griffiths said Bluestone Mortgages was already a great brand, while some of the technology that TML might be further ahead with, as well as its service to brokers, could be integrated into Bluestone Mortgages.
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He also said the objectives that were already present at TML would be delivered through Bluestone Mortgages too.
Griffiths said he wanted to give advisers confidence that each brand would still provide a separate point of contact despite the recent changes.
“The challenge for us is they are still the same advisers, but Bluestone probably has closer relationships with credit brokers who specialise in finding clients who haven’t been helped anywhere else. They have complex needs that require experts, so we have to make sure our proposition really works for that,” he added.
Griffiths said he wanted to continue to assist brokers regardless of whether they came across specialist cases on a regular basis or not.
He said both brands had expanded into new areas this year and Shawbrook would continue to look at how that could be developed further.
The Shawbrook Group plans to launch new products at the start of next year, Griffiths added.
A full proposition
He suggested more borrowers may fall into the specialist category going forward as there were still affordability pressures and higher mortgage costs, which could cause people to miss payments or rely on credit.
He said this required an understanding of how to utilise more of a customer’s income to help them reach affordability.
“There is a lot of focus on things like loan-to-income multiples, but in reality, that doesn’t make a lot of difference if the customer doesn’t have the affordability to make the mortgage payment,” Griffiths added.
On the BTL side, Griffiths said TML would still support landlords with things like purchasing through limited companies or diversifying into houses in multiple occupation (HMOs).
He added: “They’re two very different markets, but the actual ethos is having products to fulfil customer needs and having the people who know how to deliver that product to that customer through their adviser.”
Griffiths will report to Hugh Meechan, now managing director of Shawbrook’s retail division. Meechan was previously the chief operating officer at TML.
Miguel Sard, who was recently hired as chief banking officer for retail at Shawbrook, will oversee the retail banking business, comprising savers, consumer finance and motor finance. Its commercial division will include its real estate BTL business, while the retail mortgages arm will include TML and Bluestone.
