Blaine Faragher and Phillip Townsend have been promoted to joint directors of underwriting at the Family Building Society, succeeding Andrew Deeley who has retired after 10 years in the role.

Faragher began his career in financial services as a trainee inspector at a life assurance society in the 1980s, before carving out a career in mortgages, initially with the Bank of Ireland, and subsequently has had roles as adviser and business development manager with well-known lenders and also a spell as a Financial Ombudsman Service adjudicator in his career. He joined the Family in 2017 as an underwriting manager.

Townsend joined the Society in 2013 as an underwriter. Previously he had worked at Lloyds Bank, at Halifax as an in-house mortgage adviser before joining the Bank of Ireland’s underwriting team, where was also a PPI complaints investigator.

Faragher and Townsend head up a team of 24 loan underwriters who review all mortgage applications manually on a case-by-case basis. Some 95% of all applications come from brokers and other intermediaries, who are guided by the Society’s growing team of BDMs.

Mark Bogard, CEO of the Family Building Society, said: “The team of human underwriters we employ at the Family are here to ensure that underserved borrowers are lent to.

“Many of these would-be borrowers are finding it increasingly difficult to re-mortgage, let alone take out a new mortgage in these uncertain times. Phil and Blaine’s team are here to personally support brokers whose clients are being turned down by the major lenders, just because of their age or their stories are just too complicated for their computers. Tell us their stories instead.”