The lender has new equity funding from the RBS Special Opportunities Fund, managed by RBS Equity Finance (a division of RBS Asset Management Limited), and new debt funding from RBS Financial Institutions.
Link Loans will have an executive board that includes industry experts, David Johnson and Philip George. The experienced Link Loans team also includes Stel Charalambous (finance director); Maeve Ward (head of sales) and Kam Sanghani (head of operations). Stephen Johnson will support the team as a non executive director. In-house legal services will be provided by mortgage specialists, Pure Law.
Dedicated to intermediary distribution and delivering a premium service, Link Loans is offering a range of transparent and simple prime secured loan products. Loans are available up to 75% LTV for employed and 70% LTV for self employed; rates start from 11.9%. Loan amounts are from £5,000 to £30,000 and loan terms are from three to 20 years. A fully functional online system is available to brokers, providing online credit agreements’ and a 24/7 case tracking facility. In addition, brokers can view FAQs and can have a live web chat with the sales/underwriting team. Link Loans products will be distributed through a panel of secured loan brokers.
David Johnson, CEO of Link Loans, explained why market conditions are now right to relaunch a secured second charge lending proposition. He said: “The market has never been better for a prime lender to enter with massive unsatisfied demand. The old, secured lending business model relied too much on ancillary sales such as insurance, and as a consequence migrated to increasing risk and reducing margins to drive volume. The subsequent pressure on income, combined with huge restrictions on funding, forced lenders to withdraw. We have brought Link Loans back to the market with a realistic, common-sense model that is transparent and simple, offering sensibly priced products with prudent lending criteria.”
