William Lloyd-Haywood has been appointed as managing director at Sirius Finance, following on the from last week’s announcement that the business has returned to being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brightstar Financial. As part of his role, Lloyd-Haywood will lead Sirius whilst retaining his position as group chief operating officer at the Brightstar Group. Bradley Moore has taken up the position of group deputy chief executive officer, alongside the role of managing director at Brightstar Financial, with Claire Jupp being appointed as group chief people officer, and Rob Jupp remains as group CEO. The four will lead Sirius Finance, building a team to support the future growth plans of the business.

Landbay has reduced rates further by up to 0.10% on its five-year fixed-rate products, with many of the rates now starting below 5%, including in the 75% LTV range. Rates on its standard five-year products now stand at 4.95% at 75% LTV, 4.75% at 65% LTV and 4.69% at 55% LTV. The buy-to-let lender has also increased its maximum loan sizes for its 55% and 65% LTV products from £1.5m to £2, and on its 75% LTV mortgages from £1m to £1.5m.

Atom bank has announced that it is now in a position where more than one in five (21%) mortgage applications are approved on the same day over the last four months, with over a third (34%) gaining approval the same or next day. The bank has achieved this speed of approval through greater use of automation, with more than half (58%) of all cases, whether purchase or remortgage, being supported by either an automated valuation model (AVM) or automated income verification. The bank has also been running near prime customers through an AVM, demonstrating that traditionally more complex customers can benefit from increased automation.

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