The bridging loans industry is very fast growing, after all, the sector was worth £1 billion in 2011 and ten years later, it is estimated to be worth over £8 billion. With this comes many job opportunities and today, people may find more scope for working with a bridging loans provider or specialist lender, rather than working with a traditional bank or mortgage company. Below, Octagon Capital highlights some of the jobs and responsibilities you might find working with a bridging company.
- Customer services advisor
- Business development manager (BDM)
- Underwriter
- Marketing team
- Legals
- Mortgage administrator
- Finance analysts and controllers
- Compliance
- HR
- Directors
Customer services advisor
A bridging company will always have a team of people who oversee the customer service operations. This may include just answering standard queries from customers, answering the phones, offering initial quotes, following up enquiries and helping put key documents together.
Prior experience in the financial sector may be useful here, but a lot of the skills can be learned on the job. You will need people with good communication skills and confidence answering phone calls and dealing with queries or complaints. If you work in a regulated bridging environment, you will need to be more strict with following procedures and scripts, in line with regulation.
Whilst some bridging companies may have just one or a few customer service agents, you may find that it overlaps with other skills in administration or marketing. In some cases, you could always outsource this to specialist customer service centres such as Tieta or similar partners.
Business development manager (BDM)
A business development manager or BDM as it is commonly known is a sales role, with the responsibility to find new opportunities and bring in new business. A BDM would be good at speaking to new and existing partners, maintaining strong relationships with brokers that send regular deals and speaking to people at exhibitions and trade shows across the country.
Depending on the size of the firm, you may find that there are BDMs for specific regions, so that they can capture more of that specific market or become more well-known in that area. If they are on the road a lot and going from place to place, it might help if it is in the region of the South-West, or Midlands or a specific area.
BDMs will usually have a starting salary but may also work on commission and the successful completions of some deals.
Underwriter
The underwriters have a very important role within the organisation to assess the risk and rates of any customers and ultimately decide who is approved and who is not.
The underwriters will typically have a background in business, finance, law or economics and they will have very good analytical skills to assess risk and determine what rates are charged and what deals are approved – in order to make a profit.
Underwriters make key decisions and get the final say on who is accepted (along with the Directors).
The salaries for underwriters will typically be a lot higher, and this is something that you can learn by working in the organisation or you can study for this too. However, a lot of underwriters previously work in finance or law and have transferrable skills to take on this position.
Marketing team
The marketing team can be key for a bridging lender in order to convey a positive message and brand image. In a busy industry, a good marketing team can help the company stand out and generate good quality business.
A marketing department can be just one or multiple people and roles can include:
- Branding
- Brochures
- Exhibitions and displays
- Email and direct mail marketing
- Website design and optimisation
- Lead generation from online brokers
- Affiliates, digital and online search
- PR and press from local sources
- Awards applications and submissions
Legals
The legal department will play a crucial role to ensure the completion of any deals, making sure all regulatory and legal contracts are viable, taking into consideration the complexities of purchasing properties or land. The legal team will be responsible to liaising with the solicitors of the clients, passing over funds and checking all aspects of the property and deal so they can run smoothly.
You will ideally need to have qualified solicitor and lawyers to work in the legal department of a bridging loans company – with other roles such as property surveyors likely to be outsourced to a partner.
Mortgage administrator
The administration team will be responsible for gathering and collecting documentation from clients and partners, staying on top of all regulatory requirements and helping to process bridging deals as smoothly as possible.
Since every company will be different, no prior experience may be required and much of this could be learnt on the job, whilst any background working in admin or financial services would be welcomed.
Finance analysts and controllers
The financial analysts and controllers will be responsible for holding and distributing funds between lenders, investors, solicitors and customers. A background in banking and finance would be useful for this, although some roles can be acquired on the job. Other roles may overlap with underwriting or even paying invoices for partners and staff members.
Compliance
The compliance team may overlap with the legal department and will ensure that any activity is compliant and according to the regulation. To be compliant means that you will require written procedures for everything you do, including offering quotations, customer services, contracts, collections and more. A compliance team will be required to do regular training and also pass this on and teach this to other staff members in the organisation.
HR
For larger bridging firms, there may be someone or multiple people involved in HR (human resources). Their roles will include hiring and firing staff, finding new candidates, deploying employee benefit schemes, arranging team socials, dealing with any internal conflict or mediation and also salary reviews.
Directors
Whether it is the main director or commercial director, these are the bosses who have an overview of the entire organisation and ultimately decide what direction it takes and how it grows.
The role of directors is important for securing larger bridging clients and also networking at the highest level. The responsibility of investment and where they generate their funding from will be a key role of a director.
Ultimately, directors will make the final decision on loan approvals, hiring of staff and the overall vision of the company.
