Paradigm Mortgage Services has appointed a new member of staff to support its mortgage helpdesk.

Alex Vaughan-Tift has been hired as mortgages technical assistant with immediate effect to meet an increasing demand for Paradigm’s helpdesk support.

Prior to joining Paradigm, he was intermediary development consultant at TMA Mortgage Club for two years, providing support to intermediaries via its helpdesk, and creating and maintaining criteria grids. He has also been a mortgage helpdesk customer service specialist at Pink Home Loans.

Paradigm’s total average helpdesk enquiries increased by 137% between January and March this year, compared to the same three-month period in 2017; for the last six-month period, enquiries have risen by 47% on the previous half-year. The average number of phone enquiries has increased by 79% in the last six months, compared to an 8% increase in e-mail enquiries over the same timescale.

Paradigm says it has seen a considerable uplift in the number of enquiries that are more complex and specialist in nature, and require specialist lending solutions; these now make up the majority of incoming enquiries.

Bob Hunt, chief executive of Paradigm Mortgage Services, said: “We are extremely pleased to welcome someone of the calibre of Alex to Paradigm given his significant experience gained via his previous mortgage helpdesk roles. I’m sure he will already be familiar to many advisers and he has certainly impressed us with his knowledge and expertise in the mortgage market. The appointment of Alex not only allows us to continue to meet demand for the growing number of helpdesk queries we field but it will mean we can offer further services that have been requested by our members.

“Clearly, there is a significant level of interest in the specialist and later life lending sectors and, judging by the e-mails and phone calls we receive, this is only likely to grow. Having brought on board Alex we are also upping the number of events in our calendar this year in order to ensure we provide our members with the up-to-date information they clearly want on these, and other, sectors. We’re sure members will benefit from Alex’s experience and skill-set, and we’re looking forward to meeting up with members at our events throughout the rest of the year.”