Afin Bank has appointed Simrat Gill as senior underwriter, as it continues to build its mortgage proposition and services for launch later in the year.
Gill (pictured) brings widespread experience of the specialist mortgage market to her new role, including almost eight years as senior underwriter at Precise Mortgages and nearly three years with buy-to-let lender Landbay.
Afin Bank, which received its banking licence Authorisation with Restrictions1 (AwR) in October last year, is backed by African reinsurer WAICA Re, which has committed £62m to setting up the bank. It will offer a range of residential and buy-to-let mortgages next year for borrowers in the UK as well as buy-to-let borrowers in certain African countries, alongside an FSCS protected savings proposition.
While designed with Africans living in the UK in mind, who can find it difficult to get a mortgage from mainstream lenders because of their visa status or lack of credit history, Afin Banks says its lending products may also be suitable for UK resident customers, including high-net worth professionals and self-employed borrowers.
Gill said it was the chance to work with customers who are often poorly served by the highly automated approach of mainstream lenders that made the role at Afin Bank so appealing.
She said: “The opportunity struck me as truly unique. I appreciate that we will be focusing on borrowers who are not specifically served by the mainstream market and that our goal is to make customers feel like individuals, rather than just numbers.
“It is actually refreshing to take on a role that involves more manual underwriting, rather than being fully automated. With our approach we can review factors such as visa status, credit and income, that other lenders would probably reject as a risk because they can’t validate them using a completely automated approach.”
Swaraj Dada, Afin Bank’s head of credit, added: “Simrat brings a lot of experience of the specialist mortgage sector, but her knowledge and passion for manual underwriting brings an extra dimension.
“Afin Bank’s aim is to make getting a mortgage as effortless as possible, so Simrat’s expertise will help us develop an underwriting approach that puts the customer first, while still being efficient and reliable.”
