Mortgage Soup fires the questions at Charlotte Grimshaw, head of intermediaries at Suffolk Building Society.
Mortgage Soup (MS): You’re marking six years at Suffolk Building Society this summer. What did you set out to achieve and what progress have you made?
Charlotte Grimshaw (CG): I wanted to build an intermediary proposition at a building society that had a vision. Being able to build a journey that’s trusted and delivers on its promises is important to me.
We can’t be all things to all people, but in the areas in which we do operate, we’re all in! We know exactly who we are. We’re our brokers’ go-to lender for self build, later life, intergenerational, JBSP, expat, and high-net-worth/complex income cases.
We’ve focused on building a superb support squad and it shows. We’re not done yet and we have further to go. Our investments in people and technology, along with significant criteria changes that set us apart, have put us in a good place for the next stage.
MS: What do the next six years at Suffolk Building Society look like?
CG: This will involve building on all of the work we’ve done around people and proposition but also looking at how we can enhance the customer journey for brokers. We’ll continue to use new tech, and some of the fantastic innovations we’re seeing coming through in the market.
That said, tech’s just an enabler, not the solution. Brokers are a critical part of the mortgage ecosystem and continuing to evolve to meet their needs, as well as our borrowers’ needs, is at the heart of what we’re looking to achieve.
MS: Later life lending is one of your key niches and this is a fast growing area – what patterns are you seeing and how are you helping this audience? What can building societies offer that perhaps banks aren’t as strong on?
CG: Later life lending is growing fast and it’s becoming the norm. It now extends beyond what was once your classic retired borrower. Now, older first-time borrowers are taking 35-40 year mortgages, meaning they’ll likely be retired during the term, and this affects how they’re assessed. We also have so many borrowers approaching retirement, or already in retirement.
The older borrower is changing and so is the market around them. There are Lifetime, RIO and standard mortgages, giving the customer a number of viable options.
Speaking with intermediaries to make sure our proposition meets the needs of customers and our solutions work for everyday borrowers has undoubtedly led to our success.
Our agility as a smaller lender who is willing to lend and wants to support borrowers has helped us cement ourselves in the later life market.
There’s enough room for everyone in later life lending, but where we have an edge is our customer focus. Our drive to make a difference, alongside our community ethos makes us pretty special in my view.
MS: At the other end of the scale, first time buyers are struggling to get on the property ladder. What are lenders doing to help and what options can potential borrowers explore?
CG: As difficult as things are for first time buyers, the positive is that there has never been more options available – from JBSP and rental track record mortgages, to higher LTIs and affordability enhancements. But with innovation comes complexity.
We as an industry have a duty to innovate and educate (that includes brokers) on what solutions we have and just what problem we’re trying to fix.
To develop the product and criteria is only half of the challenge – we need to make sure consumers and brokers are aware of the solutions out there.
As an industry I think this is our biggest opportunity and frankly, is industry level, not lender level.
MS: You’re also known for your expat lending. How have global events affected this market?
CG: We thought the impact would be significant but, in reality, it’s been business as usual.
For both purchase and remortgage we’ve seen the market continue robustly in spite of all of the current events. The expat market is resilient, much like the rest of the market.
MS: Which market trends should lenders and brokers be paying much closer attention to right now?
CG: The opportunities to come out of the FCA consultation papers and market study are exciting. There’s been a lot of innovation, but the potential changes on the back of it allow lenders to take some strategic and risk-based decisions in house and consider their lending appetites across a broad opportunity base.
MS: What achievement are you most proud of – professionally or personally?
CG: The achievement I’m most proud of is learning that ambition doesn’t have to look the way I thought it did when I was younger. I’ve got real responsibility at work while also raising my very young daughter. Not because managing both is unusual, but because neither happened by accident.
Becoming a head of sales has involved a lot of learning, setbacks and stretching outside my comfort zone. At the same time, becoming a parent has completely changed my perspective on what success looks like. I’m proud that I’ve managed to keep progressing professionally without losing sight of what’s important personally. Building that balance has probably been harder than earning any job title.
