Smart Money has appointed Simon Nicholson to the position of business development manager (BDM) responsible for the North West of England including Manchester, Liverpool, and south to Birmingham and the Midlands.

The distributor now employs four BDMs in the field covering England and Scotland, as well as two internal sales teams at their Chester and Glasgow offices.

Nicholson, joined on 15 September and has been working in the Smart Money Head Office developing new introducers and underwriting cases since March.

He has over 30 years experience in the financial services market, 26 of which have been directly involved in business development working with intermediaries for Principality and West Bromwich Building Societies and later for Citibank, The Mortgage Business and Kensington Mortgages.

He was also involved in helping set up national packager, Creative Mortgage Solutions and was sales and marketing director between 2000 and 2008.

Paul Crewe, director at Smart Money, said, “We have been fortunate in attracting the most experienced practitioners to help our expansion and Simon is a perfect example of someone who has forgotten more about business development than most BDMs will pick up in a lifetime.

“Coming from a first charge background, he has spent the past six months, becoming familiar with our core second charge business and is champing at the bit to develop his region as successfully as his colleagues.”

Nicholson added: “The lending market has evolved massively since I joined my first lender, but the principles of business development have not changed. Brokers do business with knowledgeable and professional contacts that demonstrate they can provide the right products and service every time.

“I am looking forward to working with our established introducers in the area and developing new business partners and demonstrating how Smart Money can help them and their clients.”