As part of the restructure, Simon Hinshelwood has been appointed managing director, chief operating officer, with John Prust taking the role of director of sales and marketing for its UK businesses. Hinshelwood joins from Global Home Loans, with Prust given the task of overseeing Preferred and Southern Pacific Mortgage Limited (SPML), joining from SPML.
Announcing the changes to the Lehman Brothers UK model, Bill Bilsborough, managing director and chief executive officer of the division, said: “We want to be market leaders. To do this we have to find ways of differentiating our service and we are launching a revamped website and a service academy to improve the service.
“The two firms, SPML and Preferred, will retain separate identities, but will share information on a more regular basis. We intend to attack the mortgage market and have a significant impact over the next 12 months. We will be proactive and improve our approach, making it more flexible.”
Bilsborough added that changes had been made following months of intense research and conducting surveys with people in the industry. “The market has changed considerably since regulation in October 2004 and we must continue to keep up with the changes, seeing what people want. Our aim is to be the best, nothing else will do.”
James Cotton, mortgage specialist at London & Country, said: “As long as the proposition is strong via the product range and the service to back it up, there is no reason why it can’t propel itself towards the top end of the market.”
