Paul O’Hara has been appointed by Shawbrook Bank as a lending manager in its commercial mortgage and loan underwriting division.

O’Hara (pictured) will support broker partners across the residential investment specialist team. He has 18 years of underwriting and management experience within the financial services industry and holds various senior underwriting qualifications.

He has previously worked in prime and sub-prime lending as well as equity release lending as a senior underwriter and operations manager at firms such as Stonehaven UK, Platform Home Loans and Barclays Bank Woolwich Plc.

He said: “I am looking forward to my career at Shawbrook, and am excited to help the team build on their excellent reputation for service and innovation within the industry.”

Lisa Crane, head of lending operations for commercial mortgages at Shawbrook Bank, said: “Shawbrook is delighted to welcome Paul to our lending team, we’ve had a great start to the year with an influx of applications and Paul’s appointment reflects our on-going appetite to lend.

“Here at Shawbrook we recognise the need to cater for the strong level of enquires from our brokers and Paul’s expertise will be a valuable asset to the team.”