1. Who are you?
Ryneveld van der Horst, finance director at Bridgingloans.com, a UK provider of bridging finance solutions.
2. What is your background and what do you feel made you suitable for your current role?
I grew up in South Africa, which is where I qualified as a chartered accountant. I’ve spent many years in the financial industry, which includes my time at HSBC, in Cape Town, where I implemented pioneering financial procedures to support one of the first hedge fund investment groups in the country. I worked in a number of different sectors including auditing and hedge funds and this is where I gained my managerial experience. I’m very passionate about growing companies, understanding financial risk and the workings of the financial market.
3. What do you do on a day-to-day basis?
I have many, varied day-to-day jobs. For example, I’m on a credit committee and I oversee new business for the company, but generally I pull the strings to make sure everything continues to run smoothly. I have no fixed schedule and that’s why I love my job – I do whatever it takes in the current climate for the business to remain profitable.
4. What did you do at the weekend and what other hobbies do you have?
I play rugby for my local village rugby club in Corsham most weekends. I live in the Cotswolds so I’m always out and about, but if the weather is a let down I enjoy reading, particularly history-related books, and playing chess.
5. Where do you think interest rates and the housing/mortgage market will go in 2009?
Nothing is set in stone but I believe interest rates will go down – they need to – but it is difficult to say. The credit market is currently frozen and until that unfreezes the housing market will stay the same. I hope that the mortgage market will start to unfreeze in the first or second quarter of 2009 because from an insider’s point of view it is hard to envisage it getting worse.
6. Who do you think is to blame for the recent problems in the mortgage market? Did providers, brokers and consumers get the support they needed?
Human nature and greed are to blame. We went through a strong period of economic growth in recent years and people began to believe that it was the norm. The phrase ‘safe as houses’ became entrenched in their minds and people began to target bigger and bigger returns. So they started lending money to customers who posed higher and higher credit risks who then in turn packaged them on in very complicated bundles without a full understanding of the consequences. As soon as people started to have their doubts about the industry it literally fell down like a pack of cards.
7. What is the history of your company?
Bridgingloans.com went through some big changes in the late 90s when Stanley Cohen joined the board of directors. I joined the team in 2007 and work closely with Martyn Smith, who is the managing director. The company has over 25 years’ experience in short-term finance, which makes us one of the most experienced in the industry. Bridgingloans.com was originally created as a family business and became a public company in 2000, when it was floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM), and the company grew 35 per cent year on year until 2005, when it was then sold to a Gibraltarian Trust. Although Bridgingloans.com is now a commercially and professionally-run business, it still retains its traditional, family values which is what I believe stands us apart from the competition.
8. What is your company’s philosophy?
Our company philosophy has always been to treat our customers and brokers fairly. We pride ourselves on being clear and concise about what we do and what we don’t do – there’s no small print. Bridging finance has a very definitive place in the market and through that we can add value and offer financial solutions that can be the most cost- and time-effective for companies and individuals.
9. What advice would you give to intermediaries looking to enter the market?
Intermediaries must diversify their portfolios to increase their income streams. They shouldn’t put all their eggs in one basket, such as traditional mortgages. By taking the time and opportunity to learn about niche products, intermediaries can add them to an existing portfolio giving them much more scope to provide the ideal solution. We have a large number of brokers who have added short-term finance to their portfolio, which has enabled them to offer bridges where they are the most suitable choice – earning them 1 per cent commission in the process.
10. How high would you say intermediary confidence is in the current market? – Well, current news and reports suggest that around 7 out of 10 intermediaries are struggling to place business in the current conditions because the credit market has just seized up – times are definitely hard for them and there’s only so much they can do to counteract it on their own. It’s sad to see a number of intermediaries have thrown the towel in and have moved into different industries in order to earn a decent living.
11. If there was one aspect of the current market you could improve, what would it be?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but this has happened before and people haven’t learnt from the past. The sector would benefit from more prudence in risk-taking as it would teach people not to get caught up in the cycle of greed.
12. How long do you think it will be before the market recovers?
Early in October, Warren Buffet made some big investments to the tune of around $6billion, so there are signs out there that we may have hit the bottom and things will start looking up soon – but it will take a while to mop up this mess! The UK Government has pledged a huge amount of money in a bid to stabilise the banking industry but that simply treats the symptom rather than the disease and we could very easily be in the same position again in years to come unless changes are made.
13. Where do you think the market will be in 2012?
Hopefully the market will still be here! I believe that it will be on the up again by 2012 because history shows that after every downturn you usually get a period of growth – it’s just very difficult to pin point when it will start.
