The Intermediary – October 2025 - Flipbook - Page 45
I N P RO F I L E
complexity with a real level of experience and
depth of industry awareness.
“That team will work with brokers to develop
solutions to help their customers.”
In order to compete and grow, Chetwood Bank
plans to continue building on its existing strong
product set. Criteria updates happen regularly, and
Noble reinforces the importance of having “the
right sales and distribution teams out there dayto-day, talking to brokers to understand what the
needs are in the market right now, but also with an
eye on the future.”
He continues: “The underlying principle of the
proposition is that it must be reflective of need
today, not where we were a week or five weeks
ago. That proposition is also broader than price –
it’s the product mixes, types of properties, types of
borrowers. There’s a whole host of these topics we
address in real-time.”
Cleary agrees: “We have a pipeline of at least a
year of changes to the proposition already built in
– we never stand still.”
The market
Maintaining business continuity through a
leadership change is one thing, but doing so in a
market that is “moving daily, weekly and in realtime around us,” according to Noble, is something
entirely more challenging.
Cleary cites legislative and political changes
as headwinds that mean this market is “always
on the move,” but adds that this is not a new
phenomenon, instead reflecting “business as
usual” across his three decades in BTL.
He adds: “For us, the more complex it gets
the better. It’s our stock-in-trade. We watch
closely to ensure we’re compliant and predicting
what’s likely to occur, but it doesn’t worry us, or
fundamentally alter the way we do things.”
While this is par for the course for Cleary
and Chetwood, uncertainty is still unsettling
for landlord borrowers. To this end, the bank
promotes the importance of a human
interface, and the ability for brokers to get
in contact as needed in order to navigate
the changes.
Cleary says: “BTL was only just born
when I started out, and it was vanilla.
Now look at the market – limited
companies, HMO’s – it’s changed
radically over the past 20 years, and
it will continue to evolve, and change
doesn’t tend to slow down. That works
great with the way we run our business.”
Noble points to Chetwood’s “well
controlled, well governed, regulated, and
with scale” status as being at the core of
its stability.
He continues: “That means we will do things the
right way at every touchpoint. But it doesn’t mean
we will do it slowly.”
In order to avoid roadblocks, Noble talks about
building the right governance, fuelled by expertise
and a risk and proposition team that work in
collaboration – with finance and audit experts
sitting within the leadership team, and compliance
forming a fundamental part of the bank’s DNA.
The future
While brokers should see no interruption to
service, the business has big plans for the future.
Cleary – who will continue in an advisory role
– calls this “evolution not revolution,” and says
he is “on the hunt for big portfolios.” In addition,
the bank’s bridging proposition is set to launch
shortly, broadening the set of solutions even
further and allowing, as an example, for more
options for light and heavy refurbishment.
He says: “We’re all really excited about what
we can do in the bridging space. We’ve seen how
powerful that sector is, and how it ties really nicely
into BTL. It’s a natural progression, and there will
be other natural progressions next year and the
year after – all designed with the broker in mind.”
All of this is in the context of a market in which –
as perennial reports that “BTL is dead” continue to
prove untrue – needs brokers and lenders that are
able to handle the challenges thrown at them.
Chetwood Bank plans to work alongside brokers
to do this, not just by expanding into different
asset classes, but also by providing education and
information sessions. These, Noble says, take the
widespread expertise present within the bank and
use it to ensure brokers have the right information
to support customers, and the tools to handle
increased demand and complexity.
He says: “We’re not just a number on a page, we
want to be a key partner for brokers , and support
them in many different ways.”
Cleary concludes: “We’ve got a shortag
shortage of
housing, and we need to be able to lend as
the market adapts. We’re going to do that.
“The more complex it gets, the mor
more
likely borrowers will want to ggo to a
mortgage broker.
ag that the
“We decided 30 years ago
that’
future was intermediaries, and that’s
toda The
still absolutely the way it is today.
c
market becoming more complex
simply
plays into their skillsets.
“In a market with a lot o
of lenders
funded in esoteric ways, we
we’re a bank with
a successful savings franchise, so we are
going to fund more and mor
more deals, and in
doing so, make the pie bigg
bigger
for intermediaries.”
PAUL NOBLE
October 2025 | The Intermediary
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