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CV. Ms Rebecchi joined Leeds Building Society in 1988. In 1998 she became general manager of customer services. In 2003 Ms Rebecchi became general manager of sales. Since 2007, she has been director of sales

Mortgage Adviser: How did you move into your current role?

Kim Rebecchi: I recently completed my twentieth year of service so I am quite experienced, as I would like to call it. I have been on the senior management team for about 10 years. What we do here is we move the senior managers around so we get a really good flavour of the business. I have been on the sales and on the operations side. Last year we had a restructure and I was invited to the executive management board, so now I am the director of sales, which means I sit on the board and represent all the society’s sales channels. We have got the intermediary channel, which distributes most of our mortgages for us, the branch network and a separate financial services company that I am chairperson of, which runs all our regulated sales.

MA: When you moved into your current role what were you tasked with doing?

KR: What we wanted to do was look at new products and services through the branch network. In terms of intermediaries what we were asked to do was to first of all look at the service proposition. Advisers were very much starting to go online so we developed our system to an extent but we were getting a low percentage of our cases online.

MA: How have you felt your relationship with intermediaries has changed since last summer? Have you adopted a new approach?

KR: I think so. Our dialogue has increased with advisers. We have a team of business development managers that see advisers on a very frequent basis and are very much talking about products. I think what has happened now is we have much more inclusive discussions about what products they are demanding and other levels of products and services we could develop and deliver together. We are very conscious the market has reduced and advisers are finding it increasingly challenging placing business. The fact we have a team that can go and speak to these advisers is very important for us. We are doing a lot more listening, we are looking at how we can change things and talking at other opportunities we may have for them.

MA: Would you say there are a lot of opportunities for advisers despite the downturn?

KR: In these markets the strong are going to survive. Of course there are challenges and we are seeing that now but working together, particularly doing savings products as well, I think we can find something of mutual benefit.

MA: Are intermediaries a big focus for you?

KR: They are. In my mind we did not know how this was going to play out. There has been a lot of trade press reports about pricing of direct products but what I think is starting to happen is advisers are starting to see more business in this market because there is a lot in the national press on how consumers are getting even more confused. Consumers are not sure where they can go for mortgages. I think the advice process is critical in this market. We are finding that from a share of business perspective there has been no reduction from the intermediary side. The Council of Mortgage Lenders figures show increases in the number of customers going to advisers. I think there will be even more demand for advisers. It is not all doom and gloom.

MA: Are the current market conditions the greatest challenge you have faced?

KR: One of the biggest challenges. I was around when interest rates were 15 per cent and arrears were significantly greater than they are now. It is a challenge because we have come through a period of such high growth but it does give us different opportunities. Consumers will keep reading about costs rising across every aspect of life. We have got lots of people coming off mortgage rates this year that are less than 5 per cent. We are successful because we look at the numbers and we look at them on a regular basis. We understand the pricing. While it is a challenge you have really got to understand your business during these times and customer volume, from a quality and a pricing perspective. It is a challenge but we are positive up in Leeds so we try to see the bright side.

MA: What are you most proud of?

KR: In terms of delivery I think it is my involvement with our financial services company, Leeds Financial Services. When I became involved with it, it had delivered a good level of income but we had not seen any real increases for a number of years. I worked very hard with our branch teams and our regulated investment advisers. We went through a big change programme, we changed the products we were selling, changed the targeting and changed a number of things.

MA: What are your predictions for the year ahead?

KR: I think in terms of house pricing, it will fall by about 10 per cent. I think the mortgage market will be half what it was in 2007 but I think intermediaries’ market share will increase. There will clearly be increases in arrears but not massively. I am optimistic that a lot of good businesses, like ourselves, will respond the the pressures by adapting.