West One announce new appointments

By Bridging Loan Directory 24th January 2012

West One Loans, the privately funded bridging lender, has appointed three new members of staff at its Hertfordshire headquarters as it continues its exciting growth.

The new team members have been brought in to provide additional support for its brokers and investors and to enhance their service to existing borrowers, as demand for West One’s bridging finance continues unabated.

Andy Thurston, previously of Tiuta, joins the team as an underwriter/case manager. Part of his remit is to ensure more brokers get an instant decision on their applications. Andy specialised in underwriting during his final year at Tiuta.

Susan Bamberger has been brought in as Collections Manager. She will deal with all issues on completed loans, and is responsible for liaising with borrowers regarding their loans. Susan has over five years of experience as a Mortgage Manager at Lloyds TSB.

Suzanne Stone will be supporting the administrative team and providing a first point of contact for callers and customers.

Duncan Kreeger, chairman of West One Loans, said:

“Unlike the mainstream mortgage market, bridging is blossoming and we’re growing at quite a pace. These new hires reflect our desire to stay ahead of the game and take on even more new business in 2012 and beyond.

Brokers expect to be writing 27% more bridging loans in 2012. We are determined to offer lightning quick decisions on those loans. By hiring Susan, Andy and Suzanne we are ensuring we are set for what promises to be a bumper year. We want to be absolutely certain that when we take on more of those cases we can still give them instant decisions.

But that doesn’t mean we’re going to compromise on our service to existing borrowers. We’re offering an expanded service to them by bringing in Susan to act as main point of contact. She will be exclusively dealing directly with all our existing borrowers.”

The new hires build on the appointments of Anita Kirkbright as operations manager in July 2011, and Jason Fantini as business development manager in August 2011.