The Intermediary – June 2025 - Flipbook - Page 38
The Interview.
Paragon
that has made the bank a BTL mainstay for
three decades?
To find out, The Intermediary sat down with
Andrew Smart, strategic transformation
manager at Paragon, to discuss why the future
of BTL needs just as much empathy as it does
logic, and how an ambitious transformation
programme started with a simple goal:
“certainty, transparency and speed.”
Ambitious transformation
Jessica O’Connor speaks
to Andrew Smart, strategic
transformation manager
at Paragon, about the lender’s
bold tech transformation –
and why certainty, speed, and
a human touch remain central
to its future
s Paragon prepares to mark 30
years in the buy-to-let (BTL)
market – and over 40 since
its launch – the business is
demonstrating that longevity
and innovation are not
mutually exclusive.
From the launch of its new
mortgage origination platform to a strategic
reshuffle of internal teams and structures,
the specialist lender is doubling down on
innovation, investment, and impact. With fresh
talent, new processes, and a recent Platinum
award from Investors in People, Paragon is
pushing hard on performance.
What does this mean for brokers and
customers on the ground? And how does a
lender rebuild a mortgage journey from the
inside out – without losing the specialist touch
A
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The Intermediary | June 2025
Smart joined Paragon nearly four years ago,
bringing close to 30 years of experience across
the financial services sector. His career has
spanned a range of disciplines, including sales,
operations, credit risk and, more recently,
transformation and change. What drew him to
Paragon, he says, was the alignment between
the company’s ambition and its culture.
He recalls: “I’d heard a lot about what a
great place it was to work, and also that it was
really ambitious in its vision to be the leading
specialist bank that was technology enabled.
“But more importantly, it is an organisation of
which the employees are proud.”
It was that dual focus – on cutting-edge
innovation and a strong internal culture – that
made the opportunity stand out.
Smart explains: “That was really key […] we
want to be extremely technology enabled, but
actually, it’s all about the people within the
organisation and getting that across as well.”
So, when Paragon launched what would
become its most ambitious mortgage
transformation programme to date, the chance
to step in as a leading member of the team was,
in his words, “too good to miss.”
Challenging familiarity
Building a mortgage origination platform from
the ground up was “a significant undertaking”
– not least because it involved replacing legacy
systems that had been in place for decades.
Smart says: “In some cases, platforms were
about 30 years old […] while they’ve got their
quirks, they’re like an old friend to a lot of
people who use them.”
This familiarity posed one of the main
challenges – introducing digital enhancements
while ensuring that the people using the system
felt supported and understood.
