Last year mortgage technology specialist Fignum appointed Steve Carruthers as growth director, signalling its intent to scale its operations and deepen its role as a strategic partner to lenders across the UK.
Carruthers has more than extensive experience from across the mortgage and lending ecosystem, with a strong track record of driving commercial growth and forging lasting industry relationships.
At a time of growing demand for end-to-end mortgage technology platforms that go beyond functionality to offer flexible, efficient and collaborative solutions, Mortgage Soup fired the questions…
MS: You moved to Fignum last year. You’ve stepped into this role at an interesting time for the market. What’s your immediate priority?
The priority has been to bring focus and clarity. Both mortgage lending and motor finance are operating in markets where complexity has increased as a result of regulation, affordability, data requirements, and yet the underlying processes haven’t evolved at the same pace.
My focus has been on ensuring that what we build genuinely simplifies how lenders operate, rather than adding another layer of technology.
MS: How have you found working at Fignum in your new role?
What stands out is the ability to shape the model properly. In more established environments, you are often working around legacy decisions.
At Fignum, there is the opportunity to design with intent – particularly around how data flows through the platform and how decisions are made.
That creates a different kind of conversation with clients, one that is more about outcomes than features.
MS: Why Fignum? What attracted you to this role?
It was the combination of strong foundations and genuine openness to doing things differently.
The technology is first-class, but as importantly, there is a willingness to challenge how lending processes should work and how the delivery is implemented.
That’s increasingly important in a market where incremental change is no longer enough. A key differential that stands out for me is that our origination platform is truly composable and highly configurable, it can be personalised for a lender’s needs without the risks associated with ‘bespoke builds’.
MS: Where do you think the industry is getting it wrong at the moment?
There is still too much focus on digitising existing processes rather than rethinking them. Many platforms have improved the front end, but the underlying workflows, data structures and decisioning remain fragmented. That’s where inefficiency and risk still lurk.
MS: What opportunities do you see?
There is a real opportunity to reset the relationship between providers and lenders. It should be less about delivering technology in isolation and more about solving operational challenges as true partners to create bespoke competitive advantage.
When that works, you move from incremental improvements to meaningful change with better decisions, faster processing and more consistent outcomes.
MS: You’ve just released Fignum’s Mortgage Tech Pulse. What was your objective?
The objective was to take a step back from the noise and understand how lenders are really approaching technology – what is working, what isn’t, and where the gaps remain.
There is a lot of commentary in the market, but less grounded insight into how lenders are actually operating day to day.
We spoke to a broad range of lenders across the market, including high street banks, building societies and specialist lenders.
The intention was to capture a representative view rather than focus on one segment.
Our research reflects the current market environment, drawing on conversations conducted over recent months against the backdrop of ongoing regulatory change and shifting market conditions.
MS: What were the key themes for you?
The consistent theme was that technology is embedded, but not yet fully effective. Lenders have invested heavily, but many are still dealing with fragmented systems and manual intervention.
There is a clear shift towards better use of data and more integrated decisioning, but the journey is not complete.
As you might imagine AI featured heavily however lenders’ appreciation of what AI is and how it can and should be deployed varies significantly today.
MS: What is the market telling you that perhaps isn’t being heard widely enough?
I think complexity is becoming a limiting factor. Lenders are managing multiple systems, multiple data sources and increasing regulatory expectations.
What they are asking for is not more technology, but better alignment solutions that reduce friction rather than move it.
Understanding and harnessing the potential of AI is on everyone’s agenda, maximising the opportunity is the challenge.
MS: How have the findings been received?
The response has been very positive, particularly because the findings reflect the reality lenders recognise.
There is a degree of reassurance in seeing shared challenges, but also a clear appetite to move forward and address them.
We found the report really resonated at the Building Society Association’s annual conference in Edinburgh this year.
The intention is for this to become a regular piece of research. The market is evolving quickly, and there is value in tracking how lender priorities and approaches change over time.
The focus is on building depth as well as breadth. In mortgages, that means continuing to refine how our platform supports decisioning, data integration and operational efficiency.
At the same time, there is a clear opportunity to apply the same principles in adjacent markets such as motor finance, where many of the same challenges exist.
Our approach will be consistent and we will continue to focus on outcomes, reduce complexity and build solutions that reflect how lenders actually operate.
