One year on: a view from the Chief Executive Officer

Rod Lockhart, Chief Executive Officer

When I first stepped into my new role as Chief Executive Officer in January 2020, I was expecting a  challenge ahead. 

I knew I’d be taking on a new level of responsibility for the future strategic direction of the company, and realistically, managing a longer to-do list than I’d ever dealt with before. 

It is safe to say however, that I could never have predicted the events that would unfold globally in the coming months – it soon became clear that we would now be navigating entirely uncharted waters. 

On March 20th 2020 the UK entered its first national lockdown, forcing a country-wide move to remote working, and marking the beginning of a long period spent at home for the majority of us. 

At LendInvest we have always led technology first. This meant that thanks to our cloud-based infrastructure, the business was able to transition somewhat seamlessly to remote working overnight, and remain open for business throughout lockdown. Not only did this prove vital for our existing customers, but also provided support for new borrowers at a time of great uncertainty. We proved ourselves adaptable, and I thank the entire LendInvest team for continuing to adapt to the ever evolving landscape. 

It would be wrong to suggest it has all been smooth sailing, and as with any obstacle, came the opportunity to seek new and improved solutions for our customers. The housing market undeniably suffered setbacks as a result of lockdown. With valuers unable to access properties for a prolonged period, the team worked quickly to develop a Desktop Valuation product, becoming  one of the first specialist lenders to do so. 

We not only took a fresh approach to developing new products; but supported our customers by making core improvements to our internal processes, and launching new communications initiatives to keep our brokers and borrowers up to date with our latest product updates. 

Throughout the Summer we kicked off a new product webinar series, launched broker Slack integrations and prioritised tech projects that would ensure we remained available and ready to lend when our customers needed us. I’m pretty confident in saying we took the right approach, as we announced a record breaking Q3 for signed bridging applications, our highest quarter to date and by Q4 we were receiving record breaking levels of buy to let applications. 

Keeping the borrower front of mind through the crisis and adapting to the market as it responds to new restrictions and forecasts has been pivotal over the last year. We have witnessed time and time again the benefit of staying close to our brokers, listening to what they and their clients need and adapting our products and processes to better serve them. 

We were delighted to become a CBILS accredited lender and are now better able to support our borrowers and brokers with CBILS products.  

After a turbulent year, it was hugely rewarding to report a strong set of interim financial results and in the same month, see LendInvest win Buy-to-Let Lender of the Year at the NACFB awards for the second consecutive year and take home Property Finance Platform of the year at the 2020 AltFi awards. 

While the end of the year brought a number of successes, we were deeply saddened by the death of our Chief Financial Officer, colleague and friend Angelie Panteli. It is after this tragic loss, that we have decided to make Motor Neurone Disease Association our charity of the year for 2021 in memory of Angelie. 

One year on, I don’t think I’ll be alone in saying the past 12 months have been challenging in ways that none of us could ever have imagined. While in the UK, the year hasn’t started in the way we would have wanted it to, I’m proud to say that at LendInvest we have hit the ground running in 2021. 

In January we kicked the year off with our very first virtual conference for brokers, attended by over 200 intermediaries, and announced our latest major funding partnership, a £500 million investment from J.P. Morgan to fund future Buy-to-Let loans. This new injection of funding will allow us to further expand our Buy-to-Let offering, and continue to deliver the tailored products that landlords truly need in the current climate. 

We could not have navigated the last 12 months and pulled off these achievements without the support of our brokers and the sheer resilience and agility of the LendInvest team. At LendInvest, we’re looking forward to supporting our brokers and borrowers over the year ahead.