South Wales-based finance group Y3S has become the Specialist Mortgage Group (SMG).

It consists of Y3S Loans, Y3S Bridging & Commercial, Chaseblue Loans, Y3S Private Clients, B2B Financial and Pink Pig Loans.

SMG says its identity “instantly defines its intentions in a rapidly developing industry of exciting new products.”

This year SMG has brokered over £265m of specialist mortgage products on behalf of 2,000 intermediaries through 54 lenders, ranging from specialist first and second charge mortgages, bridging loans, development loans, commercial mortgages and more recently equity release products.

The firm employs 150 staff across its sites in South Wales, Manchester and London. Annual net profit has reached £3.1m in 2017, up 46% on the previous year.

Matt Cottle, group CEO, said: “It’s clean and tidy, and it does what it says on the tin.

“Y3S Group was a vehicle created to invest in start-ups and other brokerages to compliment the main business. We have made several key investments over the last five years, and through hard work and determination all have thankfully been resounding successes, with strong growth in turnover, profit and distribution year on year.”

“But the group’s name needed to change to reflect the coming together of all the brands without bias towards Y3S Loans, the original founding firm,” added Ben Gillespie, managing director of Chaseblue Loans.

“In addition, the seven principal stakeholders now have group ownership with 100% of subsidiaries held in the top company. It was as much a corporate tidying up process as anything else. A name change was the icing on the cake and chosen by the shareholders as a collective.”

“From the top down, we have a formidable team of long-standing people with lots of specialist finance experience,” said Nathan Raffour, managing director of Y3S Bridging & Commercial.

“We enjoy an excellent reputation among lenders, our customer satisfaction is at an all-time high and we are the fastest movers in the business.

“It’s an exciting time to be in this industry and we fully intend to make use of our new strengthened market position to deliver the best customer outcomes.”

Pictured: (L-R) Barney Drake, Ben Gillespie, James Rainbird, Benson Yeadon, Matt Cottle, Andrew Gage, Nathan Raffour.