Hope Capital Property Finance has announced a restructure of its sales department, enhancing its sales process to support growth and rising broker demand. As part of the restructure, the specialist lender has transformed its business development executive team into dedicated sales specialists, reflecting its commitment to delivering a more efficient experience to brokers and borrowers. This includes the promotion of Alicia Alty to sales specialist and the recent appointment of Leanne Stafford, who brings several years of experience from her previous role as a broker.

Buckinghamshire Building Society has introduced a series of rate reductions across its residential and buy-to-let (BTL) product ranges, strengthening its commitment to brokers and borrowers. The changes include notable reductions on the society’s discounted BTL products, including its everyday and limited company BTL two-year discounts which have been cut to 4.89% and 4.99% respectively. Other reductions have been applied to a selection of the society’s mortgage propositions, including everyday residential, deposit lite, JBSP deposit lite and expat BTL products. It comes after the society extended its credit revive range by introducing new products for later life borrowers and BTL applicants.

Santander UK has appointed Ben Merritt as head of mortgage trading. He will be responsible for leading the execution of the bank’s mortgage strategy with a clear focus on delivering sustainable lending growth. Merritt will oversee the trading performance across the mortgage portfolio, with key priorities including developing the lender’s retention strategy, strengthening customer relationships and supporting long-term portfolio value. He brings over 20 years of financial services experience, with the last 15 spent working within the mortgage industry. Prior to joining Santander UK, he worked as director of mortgages at Yorkshire Building Society and executive director at Accord.

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