Charlotte Grimshaw has spent nearly five years leading the intermediary channel at Suffolk Building Society, a period that has seen the mutual undergo significant transformation. From the launch of a new mortgage origination system to a sharper focus on niche lending segments, Grimshaw has been at the centre of reshaping the society’s proposition.
She sat down with The Intermediary to reflect on the standout moments, how Suffolk has honed its approach to complex borrower groups, and what’s next for both brokers and customers.
Defining moments
Looking back on her time at Suffolk, Grimshaw points to the launch of the society’s new mortgage origination system as a watershed moment.
“It actually went live fully into the market last October, and for a society of our size, that was a big piece of work,” she explains.
“When you’re in the day-to-day of it, you do get bogged down […] but when we took a step back, our entire proposition had shifted, which is amazing to see.”
That shift has been more than just operational. The new platform has given Suffolk the ability to refine its lending focus, streamline complex processes, and better serve the types of borrowers that align with its expertise. Where once the society took what Grimshaw describes as more of a “blanket building society stance,” it now has a sharper proposition.
Niches such as expat, later life borrowers, self-builders, and intergenerational lending now sit at the heart of its proposition, backed by processes designed with these customers in mind.
Grimshaw believes these changes show just how far the society has come. The system launch was not simply an upgrade but a foundation on which Suffolk could build a more distinctive identity. She notes: “We know that we can’t be everything to everybody because we manually underwrite. But what we do want to be is a really good solution for those customers that fit into those camps.”
Tailoring to complex needs
That sense of focus also extends to product and service design. For Grimshaw, the ability to serve complex borrowers starts with humility, recognising that lenders cannot design products in isolation.
“It’s important to know what the market needs. You do need to get out of your ivory tower as a lender, because if you try and build something without understanding the actual complexities of the customers that you’re trying to serve, you don’t always get there,” she says.
That philosophy has underpinned Suffolk’s approach to refining its proposition.
She adds: “For us, speaking with our brokers, and we’ve got some really good relationships with brokers, with networks and with clubs – is really important.”
One clear example has been in the society’s approach expat lending, where time and efficiency are often the deciding factors in securing a property. Grimshaw explains: “With expats, it is about speed and service. The changes that we made to the system to make sure that we could improve the application to offer time, that was a key driver for that.”
But tailoring is not just about process, it extends to criteria, product design and constant reassessment. Grimshaw notes that the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost-of-living crisis, and shifting borrower circumstances have all forced lenders to adapt at pace.
She continues: “We’ve also changed our criteria in key areas to make sure that as the market shifted, especially since Covid […] it’s about making sure that you don’t just set your stall out, build it, and then sit back comfortably and wait.
“We’re in a market that is shifting so rapidly, you have to be constantly looking at the needs and what your competitors are doing.”
That willingness to evolve, she argues, is what separates lenders who thrive in niches from those who simply “dabble.”
Grimshaw adds: “You have to assess is your product working? If it’s not selling, it’s about understanding why and what do we need to tweak to make sure it lands as we want it to?”
She continues: “For us, the relationship side with our brokers is a key driver for that because they’re very open and honest with us, which we encourage. And it helps us be meaningful in giving good customer outcomes.”
Self-build growth
If one area of lending has undergone a quiet transformation in recent years, it is the self-build market. Even though it has been a part of Suffolk’s lending mix many years, demand has evolved as of late. Once viewed as a niche reserved for a handful of borrowers constructing their ‘forever home’, the sector has broadened to include several borrower types – something Grimshaw has witnessed first-hand.
She explains: “Self-build awareness has grown. I think, as with anything, education in the market for customers and for brokers regarding some of these niches is more readily available as you’ve got social media now, and you’ve got wider access to stories online.”
That increase in interest, however, does not just reflect the traditional ‘Grand Designs-esque’ image of self-build. Borrowers are increasingly turning to self-build as a flexible tool to solve housing needs, whether through renovation or re-purposing inherited properties.
Grimshaw says: “We’ve seen an increase in not what you would call a traditional self-build, but where people are starting to play outside of the mainstream idea of ‘I want to build my dream home forever.’
“People are using it to get to where they need to be now, so we’re seeing a lot more renovations. They might already live somewhere, they might inherit somewhere, or they might find somewhere that isn’t quite right, but it’s achievable.
“Now we’re doing equally as many renovations or knock down and rebuilds combined as we are brand new shiny self-builds.”
For Suffolk, supporting these projects means getting involved early and removing as many barriers as possible. Grimshaw adds: “We lend to borrow for purchasing the land, so we get involved quite early on in the journey as well. We know it’s niche and we know that the requirements from a customer and from a lender are different to the other lending areas that we do.
“We try and make the journey as transparent as possible. We hold hands at inquiry stage, we have a [business development manager (BDM)] or a help desk team that will look at the income and expenditure, the costings, and the planning permission. We just try and tackle as many of the hurdles that we know come with the self-builds right at the start, to really help guide and support.”
That hands-on approach, she argues, creates benefits on all sides.
Grimshaw says: “If we can give the broker the support to help their customer, that’s a win-win for the customer and it’s a win for the broker and their relationship with their client.”
Opportunities abroad
Aside from self-builds, expat mortgages remain one of Suffolk’s most complex areas, encompassing residential, buy-to-let and holiday let lending across a broad geographic remit. That breadth inevitably brings complexity. The hurdles range from the practical – dealing with applicants scattered across different time zones – to the financial, where currency fluctuations and cross-border tax regimes can quickly complicate even the most straightforward-looking case.
Grimshaw explains: “The challenges are the distance, the geography, the location, which we’ve kind of covered off with our improved process and our improved systems. But it’s also that they are literally the most diverse group of borrowers that we see.
“For example, you get different currencies and often there’s multiple currencies on one application, especially if two applicants are based in different countries. The tax rules are very different. You’ve got fluctuations and things impacting countries that don’t necessarily impact us here that we maybe need to be aware of.”
On top of that, the market is highly competitive. Criteria differ significantly between lenders, and appetite for particular expat scenarios varies widely. For brokers, this means navigating a fragmented space where no two lenders approach cases in the same way.
“We have to work hard to build our brand in this area because there are a number of lenders in it and the criteria from each lender is very different”, Grimshaw adds.
“Brokers that specialise in expat specifically have got quite a task on their hands to know which lender does what, in which scenario and the scenarios are vast.”
Suffolk’s answer is to lean into manual underwriting and encourage brokers to pick up the phone early. The ability to agree cases upfront, Grimshaw says, is vital for instilling trust and avoiding surprises later on.
She says: “We manually underwrite and we’ll agree cases upfront, so we always encourage our brokers that we work closely within the expat market to speak to us. With complex lending or niche lending like we offer, you can only be prescriptive to such an extent; the rest of it comes with the relationship side of it.
“To serve the borrower, the best thing we can do as an intermediary market is for the lenders and the brokers to have such a good relationship and trust. So, if our brokers trust what we’re saying on the most complex cases, the customer benefits from that.”
Breaking down misconceptions
However, one persistent challenge is borrower awareness. Despite progress in recent years, Grimshaw believes there is still work to do in helping customers and brokers understand the breadth of options beyond the high street. She says: “For customers, I think there is still an unawareness of alternative options to the high street out there.”
“When I hear a potential buyer say, I can’t buy the house, I’ve been declined by one of the big banks, I literally want to get involved in the conversation and let them know whether it’s adverse or complex income or self-employed, there is a home for you. But you can’t be that person in a bar interrupting other people’s conversations,” she jokes.
For Grimshaw, this is where building societies can prove their value. By focusing on manual underwriting and flexible criteria, mutuals like Suffolk are steadily breaking down old assumptions about what is and isn’t possible.
She notes: “As a sector, I do think we are starting to break down those misconceptions. Last year [building societies] increased our share of lending, which only supports that the market is more complex, and that the message is getting out there that we are getting more share of business.
“Within the last five years brokers are using lenders that they might not have used previously. We’re seeing a shift away from the top 10.”
That shift, she argues, is reinforced when service levels deliver.
Grimshaw adds: “We’ve come a long way in terms of our broker proposition and our overall customer journey, which does make brokers more likely to return to use you. If the journey for a niche lender is good and the customer had a good outcome and the broker had good interaction with the lender, then they’re going to return, which only drives positivity.”
Recognition has followed. Suffolk recently earned a five-star lender benchmark from Smart Money People, with brokers praising its flexible criteria, pragmatic underwriting and accessible BDM team.
Grimshaw notes: “That was everything that we could wish that a broker would want to say about us and experience. To get the message out there and change the persistent misconceptions, you just have to be consistent with your communication. It doesn’t have to have bells on or anything like that, it just needs to say what it does on the tin.”
Broker relationships
As misconceptions fade, Grimshaw is quick to highlight the sheer scale of challenges brokers are managing today. What were once occasional bumps in the road have turned into a sustained stream of pressures, leaving advisers juggling both volume and complexity.
She says: “Historically we’ve had the odd challenge that’s come in, we can deal with that head on as an industry and get through that. At the minute it just seems almost like one challenge and one knock after another […] brokers really are just doing a great job at the moment, just keeping abreast with all the changes.”
Unlike lenders, who only need to master their own criteria and products, Grimshaw notes that brokers must hold knowledge across multiple lenders and adapt to every client. Recognising this, Suffolk has invested heavily in intermediary support, growing from just two BDMs and two helpdesk staff to a team of four BDMs and soon six on the helpdesk.
“If you’re going to offer a niche solution or lending areas, you do need to provide that backup and that support,” Grimshaw says.
Stronger foundations, she argues, have not only improved service but also ensured Suffolk’s proposition is landing more effectively in the market. And crucially, that progress has been shaped by broker input. As Grimshaw explains: “We wouldn’t have been able to get here without the feedback, and the honest feedback in some instances, from our broker market.”
Looking ahead
Despite the wider market turbulence, it is clear that Suffolk is far from standing still. Recent updates such as widening accepted currencies for expat borrowers, allowing multi-plot cases in self-build, and introducing non-simultaneous completion across all lending areas have removed long-standing restrictions.
However, one of the standout changes for 2025 is Suffolk’s decision to address one of the toughest barriers facing first-time buyers: borrowing caps. Grimshaw explains: “We’re also very much aware that there is an issue with first-time buyers. One area that we’ve identified is increased income multiples for those who fit affordability but are being capped out with maximum loans and borrowing.”
The new policy allows renters who can evidence at least 12 months of consistent payments to borrow up to 5.49 times income, provided the mortgage repayment is within 10% of their previous rent. Grimshaw sees this as a vital tool for tackling affordability mismatches, particularly in high-cost areas.
She adds: “We know that people are renting and they’re covering their cost of living, they’re managing month to month, but when you’re paying such high rent, you can’t afford to save for a deposit on the side. It’s not possible.
“What we’ve launched is, if you’re somebody that has been renting for 12 months and the mortgage payment is within 10% of what their previous rent was, we will lend to them on an enhanced income multiple up to 5.49 times.”
By layering this on top of existing measures such as 95% lending and acceptance of gifted deposits, Suffolk is aiming to bridge gaps for borrowers who can clearly manage payments but remain locked out by rigid affordability models.
“It is huge for us because it just adds to our proposition to help underserved markets or where there’s limited options,” Grimshaw says.
Looking further ahead, she sees continued momentum in later life lending and holistic advice as another priority, alongside a commitment to keep refining the society’s niche proposition. Grimshaw says: “We are very keen to keep pushing in terms of the holistic advice needed in the later life space. That’s a real driver for us […] We all have a duty for our customers and just to make sure that we’re doing the right thing by people and they’re getting the best opportunities.”
Above all, Grimshaw emphasises a spirit of ambition. She concludes: “We do punch above our weight, which is great. And we don’t want to take our foot off the gas. We want to keep doing that and see where we get to in the next five years.”
