Empowering women in the mortgage industry
Zita Latham, founder of Zita Latham Mortgages, discusses the firm’s five-year milestone, its growth and empowering women in the mortgage industry.
Five years ago, I returned to the mortgage industry after taking a career break to have my twins. Rather than go back to the career I had before, I decided to build a brokerage of my own.
Before my break, I had worked as a mortgage adviser at Barclays and Nationwide. I had experience and a track record in financial services, but starting a company from scratch was still a major step.
Today, Zita Latham Mortgages has a team of five, with plans to grow to seven. Most of the team are employed, which is a serious commitment for a small business, particularly in the current economy.
My experience shows that a career break does not have to limit a woman’s future. Returning to work after having children can be difficult, but it can also provide an opportunity to reassess what you want and how you want to work.
The mortgage industry remains largely male dominated, especially in senior and business ownership roles. More must be done to ensure women do not feel they have to choose between family life and professional progress.
Flexible working is part of the answer, but it is not the whole solution. Women also need access to mentoring, professional networks and clear routes into leadership. Employers should judge people on their skills and results rather than assuming a career break means reduced ambition.
Building a business allowed me to set the direction of my career. It also gave me the chance to focus on an area of the market where I believed specialist advice was needed.
Over the past few years, the brokerage has built a significant share of the UK foreign nationals mortgage market. These clients can face complex lender criteria, particularly where their residency status, income or credit history falls outside standard requirements.
Understanding those differences and knowing which lenders will consider each case can make a real difference. This part of the market became a key area of growth for the business.
Our progress has also been recognised through nominations for major industry awards and several wins. Awards are not the reason for building a company, but they provide useful recognition of the work carried out by the whole team.
Another major step came 18 months ago when my husband left a senior banking role to join the business. It showed how far the firm had come from the one-person operation I started after my career break.
During the same period, we launched a client-facing mobile app. The aim was straightforward: to make the mortgage process easier, clearer and more accessible.
Technology should solve practical problems for customers rather than be introduced for its own sake. Clients increasingly expect to access information and manage parts of the process from their phones, so brokers must respond to that change.
Some networks are only now looking at developing similar tools for their brokers. Smaller businesses should not assume technology is only available to large firms. With the right investment and planning, they can often move faster and respond more directly to what clients need.
My journey has not been about returning to where I was before having children. It has been about building something different and creating a career on my own terms.
The industry can empower more women by supporting them after career breaks, improving access to leadership and treating flexibility as a standard part of working life. It should also recognise that women returning to the workplace bring experience, resilience and a different perspective.
There is still more work to do. My business plans to recruit further, increase its work in specialist mortgage markets and continue developing its use of technology.
Five years on, the main lesson is that starting again does not mean starting from nothing. The skills and experience gained before a career break still matter, and they can provide the foundation for something bigger.
Women should not have to wait for opportunities to appear. With the right support, they can create those opportunities themselves, build businesses and take a larger role in shaping the future of the mortgage industry.
Zita Latham is founder of Zita Latham Mortgages
Related
BMPAN launches new standard to advance racial equity in the mortgage industry
Navigating longer mortgage terms into retirement
The mortgage industry’s AI challenge is depth, not adoption
The importance of ownership structure in BTL
The mortgage market is losing tomorrow’s borrowers today
Industry will be looking to Burnham for certainty not just reform
A balanced housing market is key to improving housing affordability
A September bounce is not a recovery
Rate cuts alone will not rescue Britain’s stalling housing market
Culture is built, not inherited: what mortgage businesses can learn from Mikel Arteta
What the latest Middle East escalation could mean for mortgage rates
