A team including the former chief executive of Mortgages PLC has announced it is to set up The Mortgage Lender, a new company in the specialist mortgage market, within weeks.
Trevor Pothecary, chief executive of TML, was formerly chief executive of Mortgages PLC, which he founded in 1997 and which securitised more than £7bn of mortgages in the specialist lending market.
Mortgages PLC was sold to Japanese-financed Majestic Acquisitions in January 2002. Majestic then sold its stake in Mortgages PLC to investment bank Merill Lynch in November 2004.
In 2008, Merrill Lynch stopped lending through its two UK brands Wave and Mortgages PLC due to market conditions.
Mr Pothecary is currently chairman of RPS Capital Partners.
Based in Glasgow, The Mortgage Lender will be an intermediary-only proposition. Details of the product range, pricing and distribution partners are set to be revealed shortly, with a launch planned within the next few weeks.
Mr Pothecary said: “I can confirm that I am working on an exciting project with an experienced team, and we expect to launch a new entrant to the UK mortgage market imminently.
“There are of course numerous components in such a venture, but we are well advanced in all areas, including people, processes, technology, product design, funding and obtaining the required regulatory approval.”
The board of TML will also include David Newman, chief financial officer, Hugh Meechan, chief operating officer and former operations director of Mortgages PLC, Pete Thomson, sales and marketing director, and Alex Cameron, chief administrative officer and general counsel.
Alisa Smith, head of credit scoring, Claire Duncan, head of projects, Scott Callaghan, head of operational finance & business risk, Stephen Crawford, head of new business, and Susan McCallum, head of compliance complete the team line up and, along with Mr Newman, are former Mortgages PLC colleagues of Mr Pothecary.
Adviser view
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager for John Charcol, said: “After the credit crunch, when funding disappeared, we’ve increasingly seen improvement in funding capacity because lenders can get funding from the private sector.
“Those people previously running businesses have got the knowledge. It’s following a well-tried path that others have recently followed.
“It’s good news for borrowers, not just in terms of rates. We need more diversity in terms of lenders satisfying a demand that is not currently being met, but there are good opportunities.”
