NatWest Intermediary Solutions has appointed two new business development managers (BDMs).

The appointments have been made to provide further support to mortgage brokers as NatWest Intermediary Solutions looks to continue its growth.

James Champion has joined as a field BDM and will be operating in the Southampton and Portsmouth areas. Since January 2013, he has been working within NatWest’s retail channel as a mortgage adviser and latterly as an area mortgage manager. But for the majority of his career Champion was a mortgage and protection broker having worked in Southampton for a number of intermediary firms including Connells and Countrywide.

Shaun Osborn Da-Silva is taking up a role as a phone BDM. He will be dealing with a panel of mainly directly authorised (DA) brokers in Birmingham, Bristol, Southend, Manchester and West London. Da-Silva has 10 years’ experience with NatWest, where he has held a variety of roles including an in-branch mortgage adviser and managing the bank’s SME lending at a number of branches in Norfolk.

Mark Bullard, head of sales at NatWest Intermediary Solutions, said: “2014 has been a very busy year so far. Not only has the market proved to be very buoyant, but we have all had to deal with the introduction of the new MMR regulations. Thankfully, this has gone relatively smoothly and we are looking forward to a continuation of our lending growth.

“To match our business ambitions we recognised that we needed to provide brokers with more support, which is why we have added James and Shaun to the team to cover specific geographic areas. Both of them have got lots of relevant experience to call on and I am sure that their panels of brokers will benefit from their support.

“In addition to the recruitment of James and Shaun, we have also extended the opening times for our dedicated broker instant messaging service LiveTALK to Saturdays. Intermediaries can now log on to LiveTALK from 9am-1pm on Saturdays to get help and have their questions answered on matters related to applications before they are submitted.”