Beverley Building Society has appointed Simon Glass (pictured) as its new head of new business lending.
Past roles have seen Glass, who joined the Society on 4 January, working for packagers in a variety of roles and for major high street names including Santander as a branch-based mortgage advisor. Most recently, he supported the intermediary network as a business development manager for TSB.
He also has more than 20 years’ financial services experience – 12 of those related specifically to mortgages – as well as having handled significant change and technology/IT implementation projects for major high street names.
His new role at the Beverley will see Simon forging close working relationships with brokers, both regionally and nationally, and acting on their feedback by working with the Society’s senior management team on new product and policy ideas.
As the Society’s first-ever business development manager first and foremost, he will also contribute to product and policy development, and continuous improvement to the Society’s lending processes and systems, helping to ensure that the Society can directly act on the feedback he receives from intermediaries.
“I was ready for a new challenge,” said Glass, “and my role at the Beverley will certainly give me that.
“I’m passionate about mortgages and one of the things I love most is building relationships with brokers and seeing them blossom from nothing into something mutually beneficial.
“However, being involved in policy and product development as well will enable me to offer a 360-degree service to brokers, by helping to find solutions to the things they are telling me, which I believe is so important. The synergy this new job offers between relationship-building and being able to influence the solutions we bring to market, to meet brokers’ needs, was an opportunity I couldn’t say no to.”
The appointment is the latest step in the Beverley’s ongoing mission to prioritise brokers and demonstrate its serious intentions when it comes to lending more and catering for underserved niches such as later-life lending, mortgages for unusual and semi-commercial/mixed-use properties, and the self-employed.
He added: “The Society is the right size to be nimble, and now with dedicated resource supporting the intermediary market we need to think outside the box and respond quickly to what intermediaries tell us they need, and new developments in the market generally.”
The Society’s chief executive, Karl Elliott, said of the appointment: “Dealing with us is different in many ways, from our personal approach to manually underwriting every case, to offering direct access to our underwriters and our ability to think outside the box when it comes to lending decisions.
“Simon’s appointment will enable us to offer an even better service to this hugely important audience, by providing our valued intermediaries with a go-to point of contact who can personally listen to their experiences and needs, and then act as a conduit between them and the Society’s key decision-makers, to help us ensure we continuously adapt our offering to suit them and their clients.
“This will further strengthen our commitment to going out of our way to find ways to say ‘yes’, whenever possible.”
What will his first few weeks in his new position consist of? “I’m taking the time to get under the skin of the Beverley’s current offering initially, and I’m then hoping to meet with as many existing and new broker contacts as possible, and hold their feedback up as a mirror on what we do – to begin to identify potential opportunities and improvements.
“I’m conscious that perhaps Beverley Building Society isn’t as well-known as it deserves to be, particularly outside its core East Yorkshire region. So, I’m hoping to play a part in changing that and, by doing so, encouraging more brokers to give us a try.
“I’d urge anyone to get in touch who thinks the Beverley’s regional specialism and highly-personalised approach could benefit their clients, particularly those with more complex needs.”
