The Five Minute Interview with Martyn Smith, Managing Director, Bath & West Finance

By Tony Sanchez 9th July 2013

Bath and West Finance is a specialist provider of short term loans to Finance Intermediaries in the southwest.

Loans are secured on property or land, and provides fast access to funds, when you need it.

These loans are more commonly known as bridging loans.

We speak to managing director Martyn Smith:

What is the best thing about being in the bridging finance business?

Apart from some of the industries great personalities, the diverse nature of each and every deal. I am delighted to have returned to an industry that I have been part of since it first began!

What keeps you focussed?

Building and improving, but above all, Success.

What qualities do you look for in your employees or colleagues?

Simply to employ the best people.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

Definitely an optimist!

What did you want to be as a child?

A Formula one racing driver but my parents were too strict, then a professional tennis player but ended up a professional table tennis player!

What will be the greatest challenge facing the bridging finance industry in the coming months?

Always professionalism whilst the industry has improved, having launched Bath and West Finance only a few weeks ago we are again seeing clients who have been let down by promises and lost fees which is a shame.

Having previously developed a market leading bridging finance company built on professionalism and service excellence, this was a side of the industry I strived to tirelessly improve for many years.

Over the coming months/years we await the return of the mainstream lenders to the marketplace, they will undoubtedly bring an appetite for market share and competition, the market will be enormously exciting.

Interest rates are expected to rise and may curtail the potential boom, which nobody wishes to see in the housing market.

Who or what makes you laugh?

Tommy Cooper, he was simply a genius and an audience with Billy Connolly was one of the funniest pieces of comedy I have ever seen.

Do you dread Monday mornings?

No at all, I love the challenge that every morning brings. I do however like to be able to sleep at night and look at myself in the mirror in the morning.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

Nobody is perfect and I am no exception, but I have learned to accept the way I am.

With whom would you most like to have dinner?

Albert Einstein, now he was a genius …… what an interesting conversation that would be!