Monument has built its lending team to provide tailored solutions for experienced property investors
In preparation for its recent launch and achieving its full banking licence in November, Monument has built out a strong lending team, bringing on board experienced professionals with deep knowledge of the end-to-end journey in providing debt facilities to experienced property investors.
The relationship management lending team is led by Conor McDermott, head of lending, who joined in 2019 from Arbuthnot Latham, where he headed up the specialist lending team. Conor has a breadth of experience, from operations through to commercial credit underwriting, advising private clients, running teams, and managing relationships. He has also held leadership and relationship management roles at Metro, AIB, Santander and RBS.
Joining Conor is Savvas Nicola as relationship manager, with Edwin Yamoah and George Chipperfield providing Credit Support. Joining from UTB, Savvas has over 20 years of experience in property finance, and he has also held relationship management roles at Metro Bank and Lloyds Bank. Edwin brings over 13 years of experience, having spent most of his career at Santander. George joins from Metro Bank, where he has worked on the Real Estate team for a number of years, with a stint at LendInvest in between.
The end to end proposition is complemented by Orlagh Mangan as operations manager, and Jo Vudali as senior underwriter. Orlagh has over a decade of experience in the space, joining the Bank from Aviva Investors. Jo brings deep experience of underwriting buy-to-let and bridging finance from Shawbrook and Metro Bank.
Together the new team will further develop and drive Monument’s lending proposition, which entails providing buy-to-let and bridging loans with initial lending of up to £3m, focusing on delivering a better experience for busy professionals, experienced landlords and brokers. The Bank’s best-in-class systems will enable relationship managers to provide speedy, tailored solutions to what Monument believes is an underserved market.
Commenting on the team, Mintoo Bhandari, CEO and co-founder of Monument said: “We are delighted to have assembled such a highly experienced team. We believe we have the ideal blend of experience and skill, but also that each individual shares our passion for delivery and service excellence. We will continue to enhance our human, technological and operational capabilities, to become the first challenger bank in the UK to meet the unmet demands of over 4 million professionals, property investors, entrepreneurs and others that are seeking a bank to help them save and grow their wealth.”
Conor McDermott, head of lending added: “We are really pleased with how our proposition and approach has been received by the market in these early stages. Each of us saw the opportunity presented by focusing on the needs of this particular segment of the market. The technology we have built and which we will further enhance brings much needed efficiency, speed and transparency to what can often be a frustrating experience for landlords and brokers. We are all looking forward to redefining what service means in this space.”