The building society plans to create a business development manager (BDM) sales force located in Bournemouth, following the planned merger with Portman at the end of August.
The intention is to provide a more comprehensive service to brokers, with the BDM building relationships at local levels and providing necessary support. A sales force will be recruited to report to a new head of sales for prime intermediary lending.
The changes come as part of Nationwide’s three-year strategic development plan, which was drawn up to help the lender deal better with brokers. Further developments are expected later in the year.
Matthew Wyles, who is currently group development director at Portman, will become executive director at Nationwide, with responsibility for non-retail business. He said: “Brokers are at the centre of our vision for the future. Our new broker development sales force is a key element of a three-year strategic development plan which will revolutionise Nationwide’s systems and service delivery to the broker mortgage market.”
Paul White, consultant at Belgravia, commented: “I have found the UCB branch to be the better managed of the two, but if it can extend that to Nationwide it will be positive. This does show a concerted effort to make things better for mortgage intermediaries.”
