Vida, the mortgage lending specialist, has announced a strategic review which will see a shift in its business operating model, including planned changes to the way it organises its intermediary facing teams.
The review is focused on ensuring that Vida is meeting the priority needs of brokers and their clients, both now and in the future.
The business also continues to progress its plans to obtain authorisation from the PRA to operate as a retail deposit taking bank, a move which will allow Vida to compete more effectively with the other bank lenders operating in the specialist mortgage market.
The review, which will enable Vida to evolve within a rapidly changing market, included a thorough assessment of the existing sales and relationship structures.
As a consequence of this work, a number of roles have been identified as being potentially at risk of redundancy and Vida has therefore entered a 30-day consultation period with colleagues potentially impacted by the planned changes.
This process should be completed by the end of November. Affected members of staff will be given priority consideration for any suitable alternative roles within the business until the consultation process ends.
Further details of the planned changes will be shared in due course, once the period of consultation has completed.
Anth Mooney, CEO Belmont Green and Vida Homeloans, said: “The Covid pandemic had a huge impact on the mortgage market, in terms of how people are interacting and the speed at which responses are required.
“This has been particularly true of the way brokers work with mortgage lenders when seeking solutions for their clients.
” As complex cases become more frequent, brokers need to know they can access decision makers capable of giving answers quickly. For us to do this brilliantly, we need to modernise our approach, prioritising our resources to provide the help and decision support our brokers and partners tell us they need.
“Our broker relationships are hugely important to us, so our number one priority is to provide a first-class service and be able to accommodate broker needs at every step of the journey.
“Our people are clearly very important to us and we do not take such decisions lightly. For those colleagues whose roles may be impacted, we will be working with them to identify any suitable roles within the business and to give them priority.”
